Welcome to the Wizarding Worm
by Kinoth
Summary: [Quest Archive] You wake up as a Potterverse Wizard in Worm. Fuckery happens.
1. A Preface

**A disclaimer:**

This is a repackaging of a quest I am running on Questionable Questing.

The majority of the vote text has been stripped away, and where possible the results of votes have been added between '-=-=-' dividers.

None of the discussion, Q&A, maps, or clarifications, or omake are available here, so things may seem somewhat disjointed.

If the choices in the quest are ones you wouldn't choose, keep in mind that a decent number of people _did._ Feel free to review and bitch, but all I'm going to do is laugh.


	2. Yer a wizard, QQ

AN:

Winning vote information and some few author's notes from the live quest will be kept in the text; Q&A posts, the character sheet, and other informative posts may be posted as a separate threadmarks at a later date.

Where voted-upon items have been edited into a previous post/chapter to maintain the flow, a small marker (typically '-=-=-' at the beginning and end) will be added to denote this. This is not done in all cases—sometimes it would cause posts to balloon to twice the previous size or look odd, this is considered on a case-by-case basis.

You jolt into full wakefulness and stare at an overcast sky framed by leafless trees.

You blink a few times and wait for your brain to prod you into doing something. School, work, a dentist appointment-

Nothing.

You try and figure out why you're apparently outside, since there's no roof and you can faintly hear traffic in the distance.

Still nothing.

You feel a bit of worry creep in as you start trying to make sense of things.

_Where am I?_ No idea.

_How'd I get here?_ No clue.

_What's my name?_ Snoop Doggy Daaaaaawwwwg. _Thanks brain._

The unhelpful 90's rap lyrics aside, you have no idea what the hell is going on. Have you lost your memory? You're pretty sure this isn't how amnesia works in real life, this is feeling like some laser-guided amnesia TVTropes bullshit. No hangover- maybe this is some kind of lucid dream? You don't think you've had one of those. Maybe, instead, it's the most boring ayahuasca-fueled spirit quest ever. What kind of bland white-bread asshole has a spirit quest where you can hear traffic? Where are the glowing talking animals?

You're delaying. You don't want to know what's going on because you have a bad feeling and a head full of static slowly resolving itself into a heaping helping of trouble. The phrases _'We apologize for your unscheduled death', 'alternate soul accommodation' , _and _'celestial bureaucratic ass-covering' _float through your forebrain. A bone-deep surety that this isn't your world and you've probably been tampered with as well settles in. You clamp down on the reflexive desire to check yourself over- you're sprawled on your back in the middle of who-knows-where, you can freak out once you've found shelter and some privacy.

Levering yourself up, you discover you're on something hard and barely wider than you are- you roll off to the side and stare at what you're sure is a sacrificial alta- nope, that's a enormous steamer trunk. With seven locks on it. You pat yourself down hoping that this means what you think it does, and patting your sleeves rewards you with a wand in a holster. You ignore the snide comment of _wand holsters aren't canon_ in your head and pull it out. It's- plain. Really plain. It's almost a drumstick with a textured handle. What a bloody letdown.

Nevertheless, half-remembered knowledge floats through your head and prompts you to tap the first lock. The trunk pops open and shows you absolute chaos. Honestly, it looks like a tornado blew through Diagon Alley and then shat in the trunk. A quick look shows you something like a dozen scarves or trimmed robes in the four Hogwarts color schemes, and plenty of crazy ones- there's at least two that involve neon colors, and one with throbbing paisley, and that's just the layer you can see. You close the trunk and try the second space and find a similar mess of books. Multiple copies of various _Standard Books of Spells_ and copies of _Hogwarts: a History _lie jumbled together with seemingly every other book you'd need in Hogwarts. You revise your idea—it was a magical tornado, it hit Flourish and Blotts and shat in this compartment; the previous one was where it ransacked Madam Malkins. The next few compartments follow the same kind of idea- it looks like potions ingredients and cauldrons in one and wizarding miscellanea- a broom or two, what looks like a foe glass, most of a chess set in the next. Locks five and six open to blank space, each the size of a decent room but completely bare of anything. The seventh compartment looks like that magical tornado did the same with the Room of Requirement. You'll need an empty warehouse and possibly the jaws of life to get all of that crap out.

Giving up on taking any kind of inventory, you close the lid and tap the blank nameplate to shrink the thing into a much more manageable matchbox. Stashing it in one of the interior pockets of your coat, you find that there was something already in that pocket.

A hotel keycard.

For Hampton Inn Brockton Bay, room 394.

Oh. _Oh._

That was not a name you expected. This is gonna suck hard.

Mechanically, you return the keycard to your pocket and look around. You're in a copse of trees, probably in a park of some kind. There's hints of a trail that you can see through some scraggly bushes. Walking in that direction does indeed reveal a paved path, and the sound of cars is louder. In something of a daze you arrive at the park entrance and see- amazingly enough- a Hampton Inn right across the street. There are also a number of billboards, most of which either reference Brockton Bay as part of a company name (Brockton Bay Bank- 3B4U!), or reference something else from the Wormverse- the Medhall building is prominent in the skyline, and signs reference both the Palanquin and Fugly Bob's. You spend a bit just looking around, soaking in the run-down sights and considering casting fiendfyre and letting everything burn.

You don't remember making your way inside, but you shortly find yourself opening the door to what is supposedly your hotel room. A few steps inside and your attention snaps to the bed where two packets and one letter are laying, the latter glowing faintly. Skimming the letter quickly gives a little context to some of the information floating through your head. It's a shitty half-ROBing- you died when you weren't supposed to and your mere existence in the midst of the celestial bureaucracy baffled the semi-divine filing clerks and office workers. You've effectively been shoved into something like a test server to kick around for a while so you're not underfoot to make anyone look bad in front of their divine middle manager. So, as one does, you've been hidden someone no one would care about, a shard of the Wormverse. And instead of superpowers via parasite, you were given Potterverse magic. But as the letter tells you, it's a bucketful of 'the breadth and depth of all of the Harry Potter world and associated stories.'

... you've been given fanfic magic. Maybe you can be a multi-animagus or cast with two wands simultaneously. Your zoofull of patroni will shine gold as you erect wards using runes carved wandlessly while doing ritual magic. Hell yeah! It all sounds great as long as it doesn't come with mpreg, soulbonds, secret creature heritage, Snape being your father, Draco Malfoy in leather pants, or any of that bullshit.

Putting the letter down, you decide to take a break and get some water before tackling anything in the packets. In the bathroom your attention is immediately grabbed by the face in the mirror. It's largely your face, but not totally. You've got a five o'clock shadow going on and honestly look a little haggard. Maybe dying and being reincarnated was stressful, who knew? Looking closely at your new face, though, there are definitely elements that are different, kinda…

[X][Looks] Potteresque.

Wild, dark hair and almond-shaped intensely green eyes.

-Adds [Potteresque] trait(s).

While you're contemplating the weird face in the mirror you meet your own eyes for a moment too long and are swept up in a storm of backstory-worthy memories. You see yourself going through the stations of Potter canon, then the crazy-ass stations of Potter fanon- being raised by goblins, the Malfoys, Tonks, Bones- pretty much everyone that was ever namedropped in the series. Mixed in with this is all of the learning that actually occurs in Hogwarts, both normal, like the OWLs and NEWTs, and the exotic, like the animagus transformation, and completely made up crap like 'battle magic' or 'ritual magic'.

You try to corral some of that learning to try and fill in the basics. Yes, people remember the 'it's levi-_oh_-sa instead of levi-oh-_sah' _quote, but really there was a lot of little details that went along with all of that. You manage to make sense of a bit of it before you give yourself a raging headache. It's just a start, but you'll need to know something to defend yourself with.


	3. Yer a wait, already did this joke

Yer the wizard, Harry.

Or something. You have that fanfic 'Potter' look—_eyes as green as a fresh pickled toad and hair as dark as a blackboard—_but no scar or glasses. Your hair's neither curly nor frizzy, but the frequently-used descriptor of 'windswept' mostly fits. If it was swept into an entire herd of cowlicks that is. You can see why so many versions of Harry end up growing their hair out if only to contain it in a ponytail.

You flinch away from looking at your eyes closer and decide to check the rest of your body out. You lack the nasty scars that Harry would have picked up—the more famous being the ones on his head, arm, and chest, but do have something like faded birthmark versions of them. Does that mark you as a spiritual successor to Harry? Made from the same mold, but the knock-off unbranded version?

Anyhow, some further poking at yourself and you seem to be much more book-Harry (skinny, pale) than movie-Harry (short, nuggety, Daniel Radcliffe). Despite your waifish build, you do have some muscle tone under the skin including some beefy forearms which you assume comes from Quiddich. That probably means you'd have awesome broom-handling skills. If you had one.

You finally look at yourself directly in the mirror and consider your eyes. Of all of the ink spilled about Harry's eyes, you have one word that occurs to you:

_Unnerving._

There's something strange about your eyes. You don't exactly keep Pantone swatches in your pocket, so sure you can call the color 'emerald'. You're not sure that it's the same color every time you look though. Just looking at yourself they seem to shift shades even when you try to stay still. But the most unnerving part is how they react when you actually move. When you flick your eyes away and then back to the mirror they got unnaturally bright and staring out of the corner of your eye made them dark, mysterious pools. There's something not really hypnotic, but alternately eye-catching when you smile and unfriendly when you narrow them. At one point you even turn out the lights and levitate the toiletries just to make sure you don't have the 'lambent aura of power' thing going on. You don't—for now.

After finally getting that drink of water, you wander back and stare at the packets. Everything is weird enough at the moment, but you know somehow that dealing with those papers starts the crazy train a-rollin'. Squaring your shoulders, you pick up both envelopes, note that neither are sealed, and pull everything out into separate piles.

It's not really as bad as you expected. Both are sets of ID and various background papers and records. In one you're 17, mysteriously emancipated because of the deaths of both parents in gang-related violence (thanks fanfiction!), and enrolled in Winslow; the other set has you as 19 and about to start Brockton Bay University after a gap year. A gap year caused by the death of your parents, of course. Can't have any irritating parental units around, dealing with longstanding familial relationships would be too irritating to write.

Each comes with an apartment, and it looks like your parents' life insurance has been set up in a very basic investment account. You have social security cards, driver's licenses, lease paperwork for the apartments, really anything that might be needed to slip into life with nary a ripple…

Except for the names.

You have your choice of being _Hauchings Cockworth Honeybottom IV, _or _Leslie Swaetball Handcock Jr._

What the fuck-oh thank God, poking the name field of the driver's license with your wand (you were considering setting fire to all of it and letting the chips fall where they may) allows you to change the name. Granted, you've changed your name to 'What the fuck', but introducing yourself as Mr. Fuck would still be loads better than Mr. Handcock. You suppose there's always the option of choosing neither and being an illegal alien, too. You could always claim to be a dimensional traveller from a different Earth- it even happens to be true! Or you could just memory charm anyone who ever asked and not have to worry about it. If you, y'know, had any practice on how to _Obliviate_ someone.

Looking over the letter again, you do catch that you can't have both sets of ID- you'll need to choose. It really boils down to…

[X ][ID] Age 19, College student, super tragic dead parent backstory.

Also, these names are horrible. You appreciate dick jokes, but not as a name. Well, no, that's not right. You don't appreciate dick jokes as _your_ name. What little memory you seem to have from before you woke up had you being addressed as something, but that something was less like a name and more like a concept you don't have words for. Instead, you settle for calling yourself:

[X ][Name] James Peverell

You forcibly put those choices out of your mind and take some time to figure out _when_ you are. Your free copy of USA Today tells you it's Friday, January 14th, 2011, which means that Taylor has already triggered. _Of course_. You don't remember if she's coming back to school this coming week or the next, but there's no way to prevent the locker incident assuming Taylor exists in this reality. At least it's not the day she flexes on Lung, you'd be _way_ behind the power curve. Hopefully by that point you have better anti-dragon measures than flying on a Firebolt you don't have.

Discarding all of those pre-trigger possibilities as a lost cause, you instead pull out your wand and try a few more spells as knowledge seems to slowly filter in to the back of your mind. After a bit of experimentation, you lay back on the bed and consider your more esoteric magical options. In a way, this feels like hoping that somewhere, in all of the crazy amounts of fanfic you've read, you'll get useful iteration out of it and not weird teen girl yaoific versions of stuff.

If you pick parseltongue for example, you can try to spin it so that parselmouths are all masters of secret snake magic, or that parseltongue helps healing, or wards, or just makes snakes more intelligent. Ritual magic would be the same- no two authors treat it the same, it could range between naked-under-the-moon frolicking that ends up merely supercharging normal spells, to a sacrifice-the-goat bloody mess that splits your soul, rendering you immortal. Or maybe it's a nice medium that'll allow you to find a ritual that allows you to sacrifice a ton of rubber bands and chant naked under the moon for the ability to extend your tongue for use in sex magic, that'd be nice. You've read a lot of fanfic, not all of it well-written or competently plotted after all. The possibilities _are_ endless, and that's not always a good thing.

In the end, you decide to focus on a phrase to see what bubbles up, then you can start the assimilation of your magical memories from there. The phrase you focus on is:

[X][Magic] The Mind Arts


	4. A name, an apartment, no plans

Laying on a shitty motel bed and staring at the ceiling one phrase filters to the top of your mind—appropriately, it's the Mind Arts. With an affirmation in your head you begin to recall everything you know about things that could be considered 'mind-affecting' in the Potterverse, both canon and fanon. It's not just Occlumency and Legilimency really, those were just the two parts named and focused on in canon. Still, in your contemplation you notice that you recall a lot more than you did just a moment ago; the new information has slotted in so smoothly you only realized by it's previous absence.

Fanon Occlumency where a day reading a small pamphlet and five minutes of chanting 'om' causes a mind palace to sprout fully-formed inside Harry's head like a mental Athena and gifting him with perfect recall and wandless magic this ain't though; you have a solid grasp of magical techniques you can use to improve your memory, protect your thoughts, and use all of the sensory information available to you. _Using_ that knowledge fully on the other hand seems like something to be done when you're in a safe location and taken somewhat slowly anyhow. Like trying self-transfiguration, hasty experimentation will only end with you being fucked up somehow.

Hmm, on second thought, you seem to have some grounding in the memory improvement and enhanced parsing of senses, because this hotel room suddenly became much, much grosser. You know your nose isn't good enough to detect mold, but it can certainly smell the lack of cleaning products. Ugh, time to think of something else…

On the 'cool shiny' end, you have the theoretical knowledge of a bunch of mental spells, but you'd be hesitant to use anything other than perhaps the cheering charm, a variant of the entrancing enchantment that makes people chill and vaguely agreeable, and the big daddy of them all Legilimency itself. Now, you doubt you'd be able to get useful information from the latter at the moment, so you'll need to find a safe target to test it out on.

Rolling off the bed you check the time—9:45. Checkout is at 10 if you remember the text on the keycard correctly, so you gather your papers declaring you as James Peverell, check everything over to make sure you're not leaving any ancient artifacts behind and make your way outside. The documents you got did happen to include directions to your luxurious new digs so you decide to hike the two miles or so.

During your walk you notice while you're not reading the mind of everyone around you, you have a vague sense that there are actually people around you, minds full of thoughts that allow you to know if someone is behind you. It's not developed enough to sense any feelings or motives and it pulls at your attention enough that it would likely be a liability in combat, but you can see the uses if you practice at it a bit more.

Taking a break after grabbing a drink and some chips you stop in a run-down park and ponder your legilimency. You tried casting basic spells silently and failed, so something even more advanced isn't going to make it any easier. You'll definitely need eye contact until you get practice in as well.

Eyeing what is probably a Merchant—or at least a client of the Merchants—stumbling around stoned out of his gourd fifty feet or so away and arguing with a tree you look around, pull out your wand, and shielding it with your body wait until his eyes pass over yours. You incant firmly, but without shouting and feel—

_Teethhurtfuckin'treesabitchneedanotherhitrandymejonhnboyassholefriendsatthebrownstoneoffcookstreetourturfhatfuckerlokslikecharlieihatehimmybrotherassdeadnowholeknucklesbleeding_

—A torrent of thoughts all accompanied by images and feelings. Sorting through it is tougher than you want but easier than you feared, your acquired skill must be better than you thought. Leaving Randy to stare at his bleeding knuckles you finish your your walk and unlock your fifth-floor studio apartment.

It's small, twenty or twenty-five feet square, bare except for a mattress, a large cable spool-turned-table, and a battered folding chair. A pile of books on the table are likely your course materials. Rooting around the place shows a ratty towel and half-used bathing supplies in the bathroom, but no toilet paper. The radiator seems to be struggling to maintain a decent temperature and the paint looks like it was applied by fingerpainting toddlers.

Shit, this place is a dump.

You lock the door, then shoot a locking spell at it and wait for the squelch. Pulling your trunk from its pocket you embiggen it and sit on your supremely uncomfortable chair. You get _off_ your chair and cast a cushioning charm on it because you might be a dimensionally displaced recently-dead college student, but you are also a _wizard_, goddammit.

The chair's actually pretty comfortable after that.

It's coming up on 11am at this point and you have decisions to make. You have a long weekend coming up because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, but you're going to take it one day at a time first. Magic practice, going out and starting a fight, looking for wizarding drugs in your trunk, the possibilities are (not quite) endless. You might even be able to find actual furniture to turn this into a real apartment. There is also the slight issue of not having any phone or computer, so you're reliant on the one paper you lightly skimmed for history—maybe this version of Earth Bet has people run around naked every other day or all capes wear skintight outfits, or perhaps Tagg is the local director. Getting some kind of internet access or researching at the library would give some details.


	5. Saturday, Jan 15

The best part of waking up is the tea that's in your cup.

Because it was made with _fucking magic._

A heatproof container with water and tea leaves, a simple charm and poof, no wait on boiling water. And yes, even though you're not British, you have loads of British Wizardry in your head, so tea it is.

While you wait for your tea to steep you work on your Occlumency a bit more. Mental protection could work in a number of ways, but the main divisions went something like _shields, false seemings_, and _non-existence_. Shields keep probing thoughts or effects out but could be broken, false seemings mainly work against Legilimency or similar mind reading effects and allow you to project fake thoughts and feelings, and non-existence was like the old D&D _mind blank_ spell—can't be affected if it looks like you're not there, can't be changed if you let everything flow through and past you without being touched. The first and last options were valid against pretty much everything mind control related, and the second would be the basis of fooling Armsdude's lie detector or Tattletale's pericog. Or at least scrambling them, you'd need to be Grindelwald-level to pull it off flawlessly.

At the moment you can't seamlessly switch between modes but you do work on strengthening your shields and false seeming as 'just a normal dude' as they are the easiest to do at the moment. You continue off and on through having breakfast and getting ready for the day and taper off as you look through the various syllabi you have for classes to see what's going to be due.

You're an undeclared major at BBU, so most of your classes are prerequisite-filing. Math, History, Parahuman Sociology, Computer Programming, and Macroeconomics for this semester. There's papers due in both Sociology and Macro, and math work to turn in via a lab, so you'll be heading back in to campus for part of the day. Come to think of it, the cape studies paper might've been what Laserdream and GG were doing yesterday.

You continue to passively use your thought detection abilities on the trip to the library and while you can't detect anything other than the existence of thoughts, you are able to pin down numbers and direction fairly well. Distance—well, you're okay at 'near' and 'far', so long as 'far' isn't more than about fifty feet away. You haven't quite worked up to Gamer-level minimaps yet, but it's something.

Setting up in study cubby you do your best to plow through everything due for the next week. In between you continue from where you left of researching things yesterday by narrowing your look at the world down to Brockton Bay.

Some things remain the same—the major gangs are the E88, the ABB, and the Merchants. Oddly, Faultline's Crew has actually claimed space around the Palanquin if PHO is to be believed. They don't really have a huge presence, but some of them have been out protecting their turf, primarily against the Merchants' dealers. It seems that Faultline isn't as hands off in the city as in canon, though the sparse postings you can find about it make it sound almost like a police action rather than claiming territory.

The other major difference is the lack of a couple of capes. With Endbringer attacks fewer in number and less damaging, the PRT and Protectorate have pushed a bit harder than the 'cops and robbers' play acting that Tattletale is always quoted as saying. Both Crusader and Alabaster have been arrested and jailed in the past year. Both were transferred out of Brockton for trials and actually sent to a supermax-like jail. You're not sure how they were kept there for so long but the PRT seems to have successfully kept quiet about it, other than some rumors of tinker involvement. Unfortunately it appears that a month ago there was a general jailbreak and they were among those that broke or were broken out. They weren't the only capes that are now missing, and few if any seem to have shown back up so maybe it's all a Cauldron plot or something.

Honestly though, judging by the heat villain capes gets when they're noticed in public in BB they may actually be back and be laying low or they might've been sent elsewhere—Hooky gets an all-hands-on-deck throw down as soon as he's seen as a known jailbreaker, and the Empire probably doesn't want that kind of heat. Supposedly there are new Nazi capes to fill out the ranks, but you can't find enough information to know if that's Night and Fog, a 'rebranded' Crusader and Alabaster (however they would accomplish that), someone completely new, or lies.

But seriously, the biggest news is that Skidmark was captured yesterday morning. In the early hours of Friday a big cape battle between the Protectorate and the Merchants ended up with Skidmark caught, Squealer shooting off in some kind of invisible vehicle, and Mush barely escaping. You're sure that Squealer is going to do something crazy to get her 'Skids' back, the question is how long it'll take and how quickly the PRT can get Skidmark out of the city. She's no Bakuda, but if she's not caught fast enough there's likely to be a tinker-tank rampaging around turbofucking the landscape.

You're far enough away from the general Merchant-claimed areas that you hadn't noticed yet but apparently the expected pushes from the ABB and E88 have occurred but haven't been too bad. You wonder if that's because neither of the other gangs really wants Merchant territory, most of the gang's 'turf' was otherwise abandoned land. They could also be focusing on finding Squealer to snatch-and-grab and less on land acquisition.

There's nothing you can find that mentions Coil, at least not under that name, and very little you could pin on the Undersiders. Hitting the casino isn't for another month or two and while there are one-off comments about 'huge dogs' and 'clouds of darkness' there aren't any names to go with it.

The ABB has Lung and Oni Lee as expected, but current rumors mention something about a 'rain goddess' that no one has seen, but may explain the unseasonable fog that's hung over parts of the ABB's territory recently. There are also some comments about explosions and fireworks that may be Bakuda or yet another cape.

Uber and Leet were… themselves, having pulled some game-themed bullshit recently that _wasn't_ their notorious GTA stunt. There are a few postings of other capes like Circus doing things recently, but nothing major in the past week.

With a fair chunk of the day over you pack up and wander the campus a bit so you can familiarize yourself with the locations of your classes. You notice during your walk that there are levels to the mental chatter you hear. People who seem to be engaged in something mentally challenging, like study or arguments feel 'brighter' or 'more active' than people who aren't. Sleeping people are almost invisible unless they're in REM sleep in which case they're super obvious beacons. There are also people whose base level seems to be higher than normal—one may have been Sabah/Parian, but that's a complete guess considering she was at the very edge of your range and you barely saw her going in to a dorm. You'll need to be around a known parahuman to compare, so Crystal or Victoria might be your best bet.

Back at the apartment you dig around for some Defense-related books and try your hand at a few. Some spells will need practice on actual targets or at least outside, because you're unwilling to even try a fire-whip in the space you have available, and your attempts at expansion charms are giving you an additional five feet at best. There's a reason that even Hermione thought them tricky.

You do manage a decent _incarcerous_, getting force and distance like a bolas, as well as the Impediment Jinx, Revulsion Jinx, and a smattering irritating and annoying hexes like the stinging hex. You also practice two curses, the Conjunctivitis Curse and _Flagrante,_ both of which you got pretty good at aiming. The _Orbus _jinx and Jelly-Fingers jinx will have to wait until you're outside or targeting something with fingers, because you're sure as hell not practicing on yourself, counter-jinx or no.

You're at something of an impasse here—you need a location where it's safe to practice more damaging spells and you need target dummies (or just targets) to practice on. Actual experience in a fight might be useful too, but given the hive of shit Brockton is, you'll get that one way or another.

Finishing off the day with a bit more Occlumency, you use part of the time to sort your thoughts. You'll have Sunday and Monday free but classes will start again on Tuesday, so at least some of your time will be taken up daily, not to mention travel times and such. Perhaps you should look in to studying apparition or portkeys or something.


	6. Sunday, Jan 16

After waking up and getting some tea into yourself, you spend a bit of time reinforcing your mental barriers before practicing both the switch between keeping yourself shielded and projecting a false seeming and the false seeming itself. The nightly mental practice has shown that you do have some very vague memories from before your insertion into Earth Bet so you lean on them heavily to construct a facade of 'just a college student with a sad backstory'.

The speed with which you switch defenses isn't anything to write home about at the moment but you do lose the awkward feeling that occurs when you first tried switching—it felt like going from thinking in English to thinking in a foreign language. You keep up the practice while going about your morning, popping the trunk open to the fourth compartment. When you had first opened the trunk and looked through it seemed like there was no theme to what was in there. After starting to pull things out, it seems more like there was a theme, and it was 'things for the Gentleman Wizard Adventurer'. Yes, there is the chess set, two brooms (Cleansweeps), and the foe glass you saw at first, but looking a bit farther back shows a small library table with a thin silvery-colored dagger and sheath with runes stamped or carved into it, a man's ring in a light-colored metal, a form-fitting suit of darkly scaled armor, and a mask. The mask immediately makes you think of a Death Eater mask, as it's steel-colored and very ornate with intricate scrollwork but the forehead marking is a very obvious symbol of the Deathly Hallows set in negative crossing through and erasing the designs with its placement.

You're tempted to poke around right away but caution has been your friend so far. Backing out to your library, you find a spell that reveals curses and hexes on items in—of all places—a book of household charms for pureblood ladies. Perhaps witches needed to know because their husbands left cursed things around all the time?

You start casting on everything in the compartment and while there are spells on things, nothing is returned as being cursed or hexed. You're not yet versed in the subtleties of what the detection spell returns other than harmful or not harmful, but repeated casts and lots of referring back to the book allows you a decent guess. The suit looks to have sizing charms, the knife has some kind of enhancement to the edge—probably durability or sharpness—and the mask has a sticking charm and a voice charm of some kind. The ring comes back completely clean of any spells at all, the simple silverish band could have come from any jeweler in the world from what you can tell.

With some assurance that you're not going to have your dick shrivel off if you happen to touch any of this, you move the foe glass into the apartment and it immediately spawns lumpy shadows. You end up getting in really close to try and figure out what the hell it is and can't. Maybe it's some kind of representation of Scion? In any case it's fuzzy, faint, and not anything you can glean information from at the moment so you place it aside.

You go back in to the compartment and shift things around so you can get to them easier if you have need of something quickly. You also manage to uncover a Quidditch ball set and a couple of beater's bats, what seems like some kind of stick-on wand holster for the inside of jackets that don't have pockets and a small container that contains dungbombs and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.

With that arranged you switch back to the second compartment and summon out some books on healing. If you're going to learn how to apparate you'll want to be able to reattach your parts if you get splinched, and some general healing wouldn't be amiss anyhow. After indexing them with your library spells you get down to studying. Reattaching splinched parts is done with a variation of the _Reparifors_ spell. You can practice it, but actually using it would have to wait until you splinched, so you hope you never really have to use that theoretical knowledge. The next couple of spells are a general health-monitoring charm, a local anesthetic, a 'headache charm', and _Episkey_. You don't particularly want to cut yourself or break a finger or toe to test, but you finally slice the tips of a couple of fingers both with and without the painkiller and manage to heal everything up fine. Picking up _Ferula_ and _Tergeo_ are quite easy by comparison.

At this point it's mid-morning and you don't feel like eating leftovers or making anything so you decide to head to campus to make use of your meal plan as well as practice a little external mind detection and hopefully Legilimency as well. You're only a half-mile away from campus so you walk the distance and realize why the bus trip took so long the past few days—it might be a short walk to get _on_ to the grounds, but it puts you at the back end where all of the facilities maintenance buildings and the like are. You're going to have to walk quite a way to get to the areas you recognize.

After a half-hour of walking you finally come upon buildings you recognize, a collection of the older dorm buildings that are slated to be refurbished in the next year or two. You swing around to walk between two of the buildings, slowing down and concentrating on what minds you sense through the walls. Stone must cause issues with your mind-sense because as you walk you find you can sense only the people in the wall-adjacent rooms but when you move in front of a window you can detect farther in. A bit of discreet pacing back and forth tells you that it's something about actual stone because detecting through cinderblock, even if it's filled with concrete, doesn't attenuate the mind signals nearly as much as the denser stone of the outside walls.

Once you've satisfied that curiosity you head towards the cafeteria, slightly off the main quad. It's not super busy at this point in the day but does have a steady trickle of people going in and out, standing around chatting, or smoking off in the corner. You pull up a bench and pull out a small book you had found earlier this morning when you tried summoning information about Legilimency from the book compartment. It hadn't come when you asked for 'books about Legilimency', but 'notes about Legilimency' summoned this hand-bound set of pages by Corvinus Gaunt that contained exercises he had found over the years to accomplish various abilities. The writer was incredibly bigoted against muggles and muggleborn and most of the notes contained an explanation on how he had used the exercise in question to get the better of the 'filthy swine'. With the help of a spell that caused people to see the book as something other than what it was, like a novel, you spend a bit of time reading and trying out various bits from the book.

Drawing your wand discreetly, you unfocus your eyes a bit, make a small figure-eight with your wand and cast _Legilimens_. What you get isn't the dive into one person's mind, but instead almost a summary of the mental state of the people in your field of view. Happy here, irritated and in pain there. Making a note of one guy who's blasting _suffering_ everywhere you cut off the wide-angle, push your sunglasses up a little higher and hit him with regular Legilimency when he looks up from the coffee he's nursing.

You don't know if it's the fact that you've been practicing your other mind magics or that this guy isn't hopped up on something like Randy was, but you can actually make some sense of what you see. Completely unsurprisingly, he has a massive hangover. It's really fascinating to poke around because you can easily tell if you've pushed too hard—the guy is incredibly sensitive to additional pain and you feel bad about causing it. Not enough to actually _stop_, mind you, but you do take it slowly.

With a connection established you can angle your head so you're looking back at the book as you browse through his memories. Trying to work your way backward is like swimming up through a murky swamp, his mind becoming clearer as you go farther back and he gets more sober. In a way that helps you to focus on filtering the memory stream into something you can actually parse. You're super glad you're sitting down, because otherwise you'd either be stock-still and looking super suspicious or flopped on the floor and just as suspicious.

Your target seems like a pretty friendly, agreeable drunk though. He's a business major in his last semester named Craig, member of a frat, plays guitar, dating a sorority girl. There's nothing super exciting otherwise so you break the connection and look around for anyone else who might be hung over. No use in wasting easy marks, right?

Three hung over students later and you're feeling better about your mind-reading skill. One trick that you used from the book involves opening a connection with Legilimency and linking with your own Occlumentic barriers to filter out thought and only sense emotion. It certainly makes it easier to maintain awareness on what you're doing and lessens the flood of information to a simpler interface, like having a mood meter on a dating sim instead of a firehose of thoughts and images beating you in the face.

One of the students you used it on was in the middle of an argument with a girl, probably his girlfriend. You're no good at lip reading, but the wash of _anger, betrayal, disgust _made you think of a breakup. The girl pleaded with your target before he turned and screamed _betrayal, revenge_. Switching back to normal you check on your read of the situation and find you're pretty spot-on. The guy got drunk and fell asleep, his girlfriend was flirting with another guy, they hooked up, and she tried to tell him it was a simple mistake and it would never happen again. The drunk dude in question, Kevin, had a previous girlfriend from highschool cheat on him and you follow the link in his mind back as he conflates the two in his head. Kevin's super pissed and spoiling for a fight with his girlfriend's hookup. You consider using the connection you have with him to moderate his feelings a bit, but you're both unsure about butting in in the first place, and wary using it to manipulate memories or emotions freehand on a random angry guy. Perhaps letting him go and studying and using the memory or false memory charms would let you get an idea on how it works by mind reading someone after you've charmed them at a later date.

[X][Legilimency] Leave Kevin's mind alone.

You watch Kevin storm off until he turns a corner and the lack of line of sight cuts your Legilmency off. Kevin knows the third wheel of this relationship fuckup and is pretty set on throwing down with him. You're not sure how it's going to go, you didn't see any practical fighting experience in Kevin's past.

By the time you turn back the girl he was talking with has turned away and is huddled with her friends who had been standing nearby, most of them radiating worry to various degrees. One or two on the periphery had little smirks and felt glee instead. You revise your estimate of Kevin's success down a few notches and turn your attention away from the group. No need to read what they're feeling smug about—if it's interesting it'll be all over campus soon enough.

As one final test you legilimense a random, healthy looking student fairly far away. She's pretty happy at getting a decent grade back from some class she's taking—history of some sort—went dancing with her friends and flirted with some guys at a party on Friday, ships Legend/Eidolon/Scion as her OT3…

Oh, she writes yaoi fanfic. Holy shit she writes stuff about mpreg and cape babies flying out of their father's body via the—

_Nope!_

Cutting the connection you wander in to the cafeteria and lose yourself in the selection of something for lunch. You check in on your false seeming and it seems to be holding fine. Your mind sense is the same as well, although the range may have increased a slight bit, you don't have someone you can ask to walk away from you until you no longer detect them, so you're limited to guesstimating distance. After getting your tray you grab some silverware while you look for an empty table when someone waves you over. He looks vaguely familiar, blandly brown hair and light colored eyes with slightly-large nose. You can't remember a name but you've seen him in at least one of your classes. You throw a nod his way and fiddle with your tray to disguise your legilimency. As soon as the connection is good you dial it back as much as possible and mentally shunt it to the back of your mind so you don't trip over your own feet as you walk.

When you get to the table, the guy gestures you to a seat. "Hey, you're James, right? From the Monday and Thursday Macro class?"

Ah, _that's_ why you got a wave-over. "Yep. D'you have your paper done?"

"I do, but I think it's crap. You've answered questions in class on similar stuff when the TA calls on you, could I get you to look it over for me?" He wipes his hands on a napkin and holds one out to shake. "Sorry, Derek Winter by the way." You're unsurprised to notice a small twitch when he meets your eyes but he seems almost unable to look away before you do.

"James Peverell, and sure. I didn't bring any of my stuff with me and I don't want to have to walk back to my apartment to get it, so I could look it over now if you just have some simple questions or we could meet at the Library tomorrow to go over it."

So far his feelings have been pretty mellow, but that sparks a bit of interest. "You're a freshman, right? We have to live on campus."

"I skipped a year due to family issues and already had the apartment—it was my parents'. I couldn't afford the upkeep on it and pay the housing tuition cost so I got a waiver."

His face falls and he looks away. "Damn, sorry dude. Family's a big thing with me, that'd mess me up a lot." An odd emotion flickers though his mind. "Was it the gangs? I don't normally go down towards the ABB or Merchant territory and I'm too pasty for the Empire to bother, but I hate what the gangs have done here."

You chew for a moment, swallow, and look off into the distance while keeping him in your peripheral vision. "It was the Riots."

There's no flinch visible on his face, but the sting of _guilt_ is plain through his emotions. "Ah, shit. I'm from Pennsylvania and the Somerset Riots were front page news for weeks."

You sense the faintest trace of an accent, the name sounding more like 'Zumerzet'. You wonder if he's actually part of the E88 or just tangentially related. A scout, maybe? Perhaps it's unrelated and he's just from a really German part of Pennsylvania. Shaking your head you give a one-shoulder shrug. "It's a thing. I'm not really _past_ it, but I'm not letting myself wallow either." Flicking your eyes back to him you continue, "Super off topic, though. I don't see your bag with you and I was going to do some grocery shopping right after this, so how about tomorrow?"

"Sure man, I've got some stuff to do both morning and evening, so anytime between then? Like I said, I've done it, but something just isn't clicking. I feel like I wrote fifteen hundred words and half of them are crap."

Pulling out a pen and some scratch paper you scribble down the two reference books that helped you the most and the search term that found you a decent scholarly article and pass it to him. "You can check those over if you have time, if not we'll refer to them tomorrow. The guy who wrote the article should probably be shot because of how boring he made everything, but if you search for 'demand curve model' you can skip to the actually useful stuff."

The conversation changes to inconsequential stuff after that although you have to profess a love of oldies music because you're not sure if all the same bands from the post-Scion era were butterflied. There's nothing wrong with loving classic rock, but not knowing if mentioning Pearl Jam or Nirvana would get you weird looks tells you you need yet more research. You should probably break down and buy a smartphone and a data plan.

Derek takes off after you both finish up your lunch and you head out to do some scouting of Brockton. It's quite a hike to Cooks Ave, and that's kinda Merchant territory anyhow, so instead you hop a bus towards the Boardwalk. Before you even step off the bus you have your false seeming firmly in place. It would be completely random to catch Tattletale's attention, but there's no reason to tempt fate.

The Boardwalk itself _screams_ tourist trap. You arrived about halfway up its length and headed north in order to hit the Lord Street Market and everywhere you look things are overpriced. Three bucks for a soda? A t-shirt with a silhouette of the Rig? $25. The one acceptable deal you find is a small tea shop that sells a variety of loose-leaf teas. The prices seem a little inflated but not so bad that it stops you from picking up some mid-priced Formosa Oolong and a second-flush Darjeeling.

Once you leave the Boardwalk all of the shops and lights seem to evaporate within a couple of blocks. Here and there are offices for tow companies, welding shops and the like. Coming up on the Market there's suddenly well-cared-for trees lining the sidewalk, the road has fewer potholes and the amount of foot traffic swells to almost triple the size.

The market is a huge jumbled mess. There are vague—really vague—clusters of booths, but even within the electronics section you'll stumble across someone selling knitwork or blacksmithing tools or something equally random.

Finding a shop with used phones is easy, you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a booth selling them. From a bit of Legilimency you find a place that seems pretty legit and offers a decent price on a older smartphone. Data plans are cheap, so that's not really an issue.

[X][Phone] Buy a phone.

You're coming to the end of your discretionary funds for the month. You do have food stocks back at your apartment that should last you even without attempting to duplicate it, and you do have a meal plan at school. With that in mind is there anything else you want to search for while you're here? You have about $100.

[X][Market] Write-in.

You chat with Shawn, the owner of the booth you decided on, while he boots up the phone, shows you it's wiped clean, and makes a call with it to show the hardware ID isn't blocked as stolen or anything like that. It's easy to see why he and his helpers are doing a pretty decent business. The phone was top-of-the-line two generations ago and probably won't run any new apps but works fine for simple browsing, email, and the like. A bit of chatting during the sale and you manage to get two ancient but working flip phones for use as burners or magical testers and a half-dozen older phones with broken screens that make no sense for them to try and repair. If you take the batteries out you can see if repair spells work on electronics.

Fifty dollars lighter you pull up the map on your phone and set a pin in Cooks Ave. It's probably a dumb idea to sniff around, but just a peek wouldn't hurt, right?

Leaving the Market you go west a bit and encounter Cooks Avenue. There are indeed brownstones here, most of them completely boarded up. There's nothing that screams 'Merchant Territory' offhand, but the street itself is eerily quiet. You also can't detect any minds, but just in case you find an alcove where you can't be seen and attempt a _Homenum Revelio_ and get no response. The house on the opposite side does have people inside, you pick up three signatures as soon as you cross the street. Poking your head into the alleyway behind the houses shows some lights coming out of windows farther down the street as well as what looks like the cherry of a cigarette from a house with no visible lights.

It's getting on towards dusk, so you could sneak around as you are, change in to your newly-acquired but untested suit, or head back home now that you've scouted the area. Once you master apparition that alcove you found would work fine as a place to teleport to.

[X][Cooks Ave] Go back to your apartment.

It's dark enough that you don't feel in any particular danger of being seen by the suspicious floating cigarette so you take a good look at what you can see of the house—there are bars on the downstairs windows and the lack of lights are probably blackout curtains or spray paint because as your eyes adjust you can see a faint glow around a couple of the upstairs windows.

Pulling your head back in you check the house you're near and again feel no one inside. Walking around the side shows some broken windowpanes and you lever yourself up to look in and see litter and dust everywhere. You get a good look in case you want to use it as a staging area later.

Getting back on the ground you're just a few steps from the sidewalk when you feel minds suddenly appear at the limit of your range. You lunge for the alcove you found between two closely-spaced bay windows and flatten your back against the wall. You hear a diesel growl and the wind of a car's passage on the street nearby but don't see anything. When a screech of brakes happens you peek out and see two female figures emerge from thin air along with a couple of guys with guns visible.

It has to be Squealer, and she's obviously on a rampage as she storms into the building smoking guy was at and you hear her yelling. Even if you weren't already leaving that seals the deal for you and you carefully make your way back to the closest bus stop, relying on your mind-sense to keep you away from people until you're a couple of streets away.

Back at the apartment you get some food in you and practice Occlumency as per usual. You are meeting Derek tomorrow in the Library around 11, which gives plenty of time before to do a little study and most likely you'll have some time afterwards.


	7. Mon, Jan 17

You need a bigger area to really let loose in for practice, but first you really need to learn how to apparate. It'll be faster and safer if you can just pop from one place to the other—real wizards don't have to wait for a bus.

Rather than attempting to conjure hoops you transfigure some trash into chalk and make four circles in your apartment—one by the front door, one in the bathroom, one in the 'living room', and the final over by the window. You also take the time to silence the walls, floor, and ceiling before standing in the door ring and concentrating.

You had prepared for this when you woke up this morning and did your normal Occlumency by going over what information and wisps of memory you had on apparition. The official Ministry of Magic way involves both a wand in your hand and a twist of the body like you're about to pirouette. You…. Nah, you don't want to have to do that. A dignified standing teleport will be just fine. There'll be time to learn flashy smoke-teleports or the like later.

Five minutes and plenty of determination and deliberation later you still haven't gotten any closer to actually apparating. Frowning, you take out your wand and hold it. If this doesn't work you'll be forced to twirl around like an idiot and that just isn't acceptable in the slightest.

The wand seems to be the missing part—most likely you're not quite in tune with your magic enough to do it wandlessly. Now you need just a moment of concentration before you find yourself jammed through a tube and over by your window, a loud _crack_ echoing in your ears. You turn and focus on the circle in the living room and try to apparate slower. The noise is a bit softer but the twisting feel is even worse, you need a moment to breathe deeply and work on not throwing up. As soon as you feel okay again you apparate without looking to the bathroom changing it up by not pushing as hard. You arrive with a soft _pop_ and smirk at yourself in the mirror.

You proceed to use apparition to pop over to the open trunk and summon out a beginning primer on warding, as well as one called _A Wizard's Home is His Castle_ by Gundolf du Bec. Popping to your chair, you crack the warding book open. It explains how runes are used to prepare either the area to be warded or markers that defined a warded area—commonly known as runestones. Those runestones capture a spell cast and spread it out either radiating from a single stone or in an area defined by multiple stones. Skipping ahead a bit, you see that this particular book's only going to be showing some very basic spells to turn in to wards but they'll still be super useful to you. The muggle-repelling charm and the notice-me-not are the major draw, but fire-suppression, room-sealing, and intruder detection aren't shabby either. A bit of reading tells you that you probably shouldn't put the muggle-repelling stuff on your apartment, the effect of the ward radiates out from the stones so there would likely be leakages into the surrounding apartments and that would definitely draw attention. Nevertheless, some of the other spells will work.

You flip back to the runes primer and pull out a notepad, spending an hour going over the very abbreviated syllabary used in the book. You're not going to be able to do anything other than make runestones for the few wards in this particular book, but that's enough for now, and you can use this bootstrap to expand your runes knowledge later.

A half hour or so before you need to meek with Derek you gather all your stuff and apparate to an area you had noticed near the cafeteria yesterday that held a backup generator. The enclosure was facing away from any paths and occluded vision from all directions except directly in front of it. Peeking your head around the bushes shows you a few people walking farther down the path so you stroll out and head to the Library.

Derek is already set up at a table even though you're both early and there's a woman with him, the two of them chatting quietly as they worked. Walking up Derek gives you a nod before gesturing over to the woman. "My cousin Erica, she's a sophomore." She raises a hand in greeting, her sunglass-covered eyes (even indoors?) turning towards you even though she doesn't say anything.

The two of you get stuck into Derek's report—like he had said, the short paper is done, but he clearly talked around some of the subject matter in a way that makes it obvious that there are some gaps in his understanding. You go over things and chat in between, even getting a couple of comments out of the otherwise silent Erica. At one point when you respond 'TANSTAAFL' to one of his arguments and then break down to explain it—'there ain't no such thing as a free lunch'—Erica stifles a snort and swats him on the back of the head.

"He was homeschooled like me, but like most boys from our clan never cared about doing any reading for fun. Your Heinlein quotes won't mean anything to him." She smiles at his scowl and dismisses him with a flick of her fingers.

Derek's no idiot, though, and after finding an explanation that works for him he's pretty quick to fix the issues with his paper. They convince you to join them in the cafe for lunch and you're introduced to half-a-dozen other cousins of various stripes. All are sophomores or older, split between business and chemistry majors. There's an interesting combination of accents at play as well, some speaking like Derek, some with perfect diction like Erica.

You do manage to slip away to the bathroom and cast the emotion-sensing version of Legilimency. Unfortunately it doesn't tell you anything you couldn't figure out yourself—they all seem fairly fond of each other with no obvious signs of anger or irritation.

All of them leave as a big group, heading off to some kind of 'family thing' that they had mentioned a few times. You watch them go before finding the your new apparition point and popping back to your apartment. You'll need actual stone or gems for long lasting wards, but wood will work fine for short-term emplacement. You find a broken desk in the seventh compartment that offers decent material and you sketch out a combined room-seal and intruder-suppression ward and place the markers at the edges of the walls. Once stuck to the walls and bounding the area to be warded, you cast the spells in order, sweeping your wand and pushing the spell out to each corner. There's a _click_ in your spellcasting and you feel the spell pulled away from your control as it snaps into place over the room.

Flush with success, you gather a hoodie and a plain gray scarf to wrap around your lower face and apparate to Cooks Ave with the softest pop you can manage. After a look around to verify no one saw you you feel out with both mind and magic to verify no one's around, you slip out the back and head towards the docks. Once you're off the major roads you wrap the scarf over your face and pull your hood up.

Yes, the Docks are cliche but there are a huge number of abandoned buildings of all sizes here from small shacks to warehouses. The Undersiders' base is somewhere central-Docks related, so you stay on the outskirts and look for a building that's in decent condition. The first likely building you run across is a corrugated-steel blue-green building with a couple of garage doors on the north and south sides. The street-side is blocked by a upended dumpster and a shoulder-high bunch of bricks from the partially-collapsed building across the street. You walk the length and make sure nothing comes up on your scan as human, then find the single access door on the side and pop it open with an _alohamora. _A look around the interior doesn't tell you what was done in here—there's a few milling machines and lathes so it may have been some kind of machine shop. Even with the high ceiling it's only a single floor, with two overhead cranes hanging down. Smaller equipment seems to have been removed, leaving the skeleton of the building largely intact. Some puddles on the floor point to roof leaks and you use air freshening charms liberally. There are no interior windows, giving this a very Fallout vibe. You levitate some junk from outside in and prop it against the door before popping outside and making sure no one will be able to get in.

The next decent building is almost the opposite of the metal one you'd found previously. This is a three-story building, arched doors and windows on the first and third floors, regular windows on the second. Inside one side of the building has what were probably offices on all three floors with the remainder being an open warehouse area. Nothing is blocking entrance to the building, and it even looks to have been looted previously, but the cross streets near it are choked with burnt-out husks of cars and rubble, making it difficult to get to in the first place. Again the shell of the building is in great shape, although you only see one window with intact glass, all the way on the third floor.

Unfortunately when you're looking around most other areas seem to have squatters either living inside or nearby, or have gaping holes somewhere where patching it would be pretty obvious. Making your way up to a roof you look over and see a clear, sheltered area off in the Trainyard and apparate over to it.

Stalking towards the Boat Graveyard side of the Trainyard you finally manage to find a train shed that's completely intact and has a couple of old coal cars tipped over along one side, blocking all of those windows from view. There's enough debris around that you could block the other side and the two entrances on either side as well. The tin roof is patchy in a few places but fixable, but like most places, the glass windows are a loss.

You apparate back to your apartment and spend the evening going over the _Castle_ book. It contains both charms and transfigurations for buildings, focusing mostly on stone. It would take practice, but you should be able to take random debris—and there's plenty of stone for a like-to-like transfiguration—and turn it in to seamless fixes for any structural issues you may have missed. Similarly, the book offers some suggestions of transfiguration with glass and glass shards, all you'd need to do is summon glass shards and use a mass transfiguration to meld them all together into fixed panes. The glass can even be controlled to ooze up into place and cover existing muntins.

Tomorrow you'll have to start dealing with classes again, but with apparition down you just need to find a few more safe spots to cover most of campus and your travels should be pretty simple.


	8. Week 1 (Jan 18-21)

After waking up and magicking your way through the morning you check your schedule. Whoever decided that world history should be taught at 8:30 in the morning was an idiot. It's bad enough trying to be interested in learning history when it's so very general and fast-paced but to have it early enough in the morning that everyone's bleary-eyed makes it that much worse.

Offsetting that is the neat fact that you're one apparition and a five minute walk from class. Honestly it takes you more time to attempt (and finally succeed) in transfiguring a teacup into a thermos for your tea that actually getting to class on time. You're still not sure it's a true thermos because you don't think you can transfigure a vacuum, but you're cheating by using a warming charm anyhow.

You stroll in to class a full five minutes before the start and find only a couple of girls who you've never made the acquaintance of sitting towards one side and a long-haired Latino-looking guy front and center. You exchange nods with the guy and sit down near the front and start pulling out your notebook. The rest of the class trickles in with Derek giving you a wave in passing before finding a seat.

The class itself isn't anything to write home about. There's very little discussion and little detail given that the class is supposed to cover more than two thousand years of history. Your note-taking is simple and concise and honestly you could probably regurgitate the basic gist of the lecture even if you might differ in some of the word choices.

Your next class isn't for almost an hour, so once everyone stampedes for the exits you take your time packing up and sip at your tea instead. A soft groan from your left draws your attention and you look over to see a bloodshot brown eye staring at your thermos. The girl had drug herself in at the last minute and laid slumped on the tiny armrest-sized desk the entire time. You figured she was asleep, but even if she had been, the noise of everyone leaving apparently awakened her.

"It's tea, not coffee." You comment mildly. You murmur _legilimens_ under your breath and push a bit to try and establish a connection. You don't quite get a full connection, but a few feelings pass from her eye to yours and you get empathetic twinges of the hangover she's feeling right now. Passing the container to her, she pulls her straight dark hair out of her face, shakes a couple of painkillers out of a bottle and chugs most of your remaining drink. At least she has the good sense to look sheepish as she passes you your drink back.

"Sorry," she rasps. Her skin is pale and she squints when light reflects off of the whiteboard at the front of the class. "I guess trying to run to class made the hangover worse." She blinks a couple of times and meets your eyes, freezing for a moment before offering a pained smile. "I'm Sarah."

"James," you give her an amused smile back and stand. "I've always found that if I'm gonna drink that I block out most of the next morning for recovery. Running was probably a bad idea, yeah."

Sarah looks disgruntled at the comment but perks up a bit when you pick her backpack up and offer it to her. She's a little shaky standing up and you fear she would have tipped over if she had to do it herself.

"Have you eaten anything yet?"

"No?"

You sigh and gesture her towards the door. "Did you at least drink a bunch of water before you went to bed?" At her very soft head shake and wince you don't bother to hold back the sigh. "It's like you've never had a hangover before."

"I haven't?"

Oh, she's one of those up-talkers? That could be really annoying?

"You should get some food and a lot of water in you and then go back to sleep if you don't have any tests today." You have the time to get her to the cafeteria and maybe even cast a pain-relief spell on her surreptitiously, but do you really want to take the time?

[X][Sarah] Walk her to the cafeteria, make sure she eats, try using healing magic on her.

You pluck Sarah's backpack from her since she hadn't done anything with it since you handed it to her a few minutes ago. "Alright, I have like an hour before my next class, so how about we get you something greasy for breakfast and all the water you can drink."

Sarah pulls an oversized pair of sunglasses from the smaller pocket of her bag before sliding them on and sighing in relief. "That'd be great."

With the glasses on she stops flinching every time the light level increases the slightest amount but she still stays pretty quiet as you walk. The cafeteria is pretty empty so it's not difficult to assemble eggs and bacon, but you also throw a banana and oatmeal on her tray. There's no sports drinks so you grab a glass of 'vitamin water' and some hot tea while she's getting settled at a table. You use the time to flip your wand around in the holster so it's pointing out and push it so that it makes contact with your skin. You're not completely sure it'll work but it's easier than trying to surreptitiously wave a wand around.

"Here," you say, handing her the flavored water, "drink this first, worry about caffeine later."

You can't actually see her eyes but you get the sense of her blinking slowly at you. "M'kay. I don't remember you really talking to anyone in class before."

You manage to keep your laugh down enough so she doesn't flinch. "I'm not really a huge people person most of the time. Still, when a friggin' zombie looks over at me I can take pity on them."

She tilts her head enough that you can see her attempt at a bloodshot glare as she continues chewing. "M'not a zombie."

"Suuuuuuure." You manage to control your skeptical look as best you can. "So, you gonna drink a little less now?"

While she chews the banana you move your hand under the table and murmur the diagnostic spell as softly as you can. To your relief you feel the information trickle in to your mind and take the time to scan her. You can't see how much she had drunk but damned if it doesn't seem like she's still half-drunk and hungover. Short of a hangover potion (which you don't have, and would bring up some uncomfortable questions) all she really needs is water and time. And half a day of sleep, probably. Who knows how she made it to class—it must have been on adrenaline and a prayer. You try to come up with some easy way to cast a painkiller spell on her that wouldn't have her just magically feel better and don't really come up with anything smooth.

"Yeah, like I was keeping up with my big when she was drinking and we got in to doing shots-"

"Your big what?"

"Like, my big. I'm in a sorority and she's my big sister?"

"Ah. Yeah, the amount I know about that kind of stuff could be written on these tiny napkins with space to spare."

Sarah starts to regale you about 'bigs' and 'littles' but gets a bit too animated and winces again.

You manage to sneak in a casting of the painkiller by making it seem like you were offering a head massage for the headache she still had. Getting her back to her dorm was also a chore because after helping her hangover the slight drunkenness came to the fore and she was pretty giggly.

Luckily her roommate Susan—a tiny brunette—manhandled her in to their room and thanked you for bringing her back before she had to go track her down herself. You do get a look like you are some kind of freak when Sarah calls you 'Mr. Magic Hands', but an explanation and another casting of the spell when doing a head massage stops the skeptical look, but does make you cringe when Susan calls you that as you walk down the hall to leave.

Your next class isn't so much a class as a study session for Macro where there's a TA to take your work and answer questions. You walk in early to find that Derek is sitting and talking with a couple of students. He waves you over and immediately asks if you've heard what the Merchants were up to last night. When you say you haven't, he shows you a PHO post of multiple security cameras merged together.

"All eight locations were hit at the same time—that's crazy for the Merchants, they generally couldn't hit one thing correctly."

You hand his phone back. "And the stealth fields? I know she's a Tinker and all, but…"

"She's a vehicle tinker, or something like it," one of the guys, Vijay points out, "and she's made cloaked things before, but only one at a time. This is unprecedented."

"I think Skidmark was holding her back," Derek says bluntly. "He was arrested what, four days ago? And now instead of some crazy tinker-tank that'll end up blowing itself up there's at least ten stealthed truck things that worked perfectly. If that's what she's capable of, the Merchants are going to be pretty dangerous."

"I had gone to Lord's Market on Sunday and was walking back when I heard what sounded like a big diesel truck pass near me, but I didn't see anything," you say. "There wasn't any traffic on any of the streets I could see. Wonder if it was one of those stealth things."

Both Vijay and Derek look interested, but Miss Najjar the TA calls everyone to attention. You turn in your report at the end of class and chat a bit more with both guys before finding a quiet spot to pop back to your apartment for lunch and a bit of magical study.

While you eat you hold your wand in your palm and use the Four-Point spell to point north. Using your wand as a compass isn't hugely useful at the moment but the idea behind making a simple spell to tell you information is something that you might be able to hack in the future. You switch over to practicing the Super-sensory Charm instead, using your Occlumency and increased cognition from the mind arts to slowly get used to the sheer amount of information bombarding you. It's not something you'd want to leave up for any major amount of time—you can smell the pigeon shit from the roof of the building next door and the open dumpster in the alleyway—but the enhanced vision and hearing may end up being useful.

Cleaning up and finishing the few questions you had for history, you get back in 'costume' then apparate over to the three-story warehouse that you finally decided on for a main base.

Instead of setting up wards immediately, you wander the area casting _Homenum Revelio _to make sure there aren't any hidden people that you didn't detect with your mind sense. Once you're sure it's clear you dig through the rubble piles nearby until you stumble upon a huge chunk of pink granite. It was probably an old surface plate from a machine shop, but it'll work excellently when divided into smaller chunks for wardstones. Maybe too well, really, you'll save this for permanent wards once you have a bit more experience. You levitate that back to your lair and come back to the same pile for some stone that looks like it was the facade of a building.

Back at the warehouse, you get some decent experience with _Reparo _to get the broken front door fixed. The large rolling metal doors on the back also need a shot of repair in order to roll smoothly. You close both sets and lock them with a _Colloportus._

Taking your stone up to the second floor where there are some rooms, you pull out your reference materials and work on making some simple wardstones to get started. You don't know quite enough to put up Hogwarts-worthly wards quite yet, so simple will have to do. The combined rune schema for muggle-repelling, notice-me-not, and intruder-detection is laid out in the book, so it's easy enough to copy on to the stone, if a bit time consuming. With the notice-me-not included a vertical boundary needs to be established, so you end up carving eight copies and breaking open the roof access in order to place the top stones. The spellcasting and tying it to the wardstones is the first time that magic has actually felt like work to you, leaving you hungry and somewhat tired. The wards feel strong, though and you feel them in the back of your mind, just like you feel the wards on your apartment telling you that everything is undisturbed.

Wednesday's classes don't start until almost 10, so you sleep in a bit and check the news. No major gang violence, although a couple of postings on PHO mention some weird noises coming from the western parts of the Trainyard. Skidmark is supposedly still on the Rig and arraignment has been pushed back for some reason. Speculation is that he's in the middle of meth withdrawal and probably unresponsive.

After your morning math class you spend some time in your lair cleaning out old debris and practicing detection spells. You don't know if you could call them charms, it seemed to be more like divination, but some searching through the trunk had come up with some spells that could be tailored into searching for things—like 'guns' or 'cars' or 'marijuana'. Well, actually you ended up having to refer to a primer dealing with spell modification and hacking the Four-Point spell to point to the nearest concentration of a previously-cast spell. It wasn't great, but otherwise casting a spell to find 'a gun' went absolutely apeshit and returned way too many pings.

After that bit of magic practice you head back to campus for afternoon classes. You're pretty early to Parahuman Sociology (or 'cape 101' as everyone seems to call it) and have your pick of seats. You sit and cast the wide-band legilimency spell and watch people trickle in. Crystal—Laserdream—wanders in talking to a couple of people before noticing you and flashing _embarrassment_ for a moment. She ends up taking a seat next to you and meticulously arranging her notebook and pen before turning to you.

"Uh, hey. I want to apologize for the other day, my cousin is…" she trails off with a twist of her cupid's bow lips.

You shrug. "It was just annoying really. Is she like that all the time?"

Crystal's shoulders relax a bit. "_Yes._"

"Get that a lot?" you ask.

"Yeah, sometimes it feels like I'm her moth-" she breaks off as her cousin floats into the room, her aura high enough to pull the attention of almost everyone. As soon as Victoria looks her way she makes a couple of hand gestures while blaring _embarrassment _and _anger_. Glory Girl reins in her aura and settles to the floor, looking away and flushing a bit. Crystal turns away from you and busies herself by taking her headband off and fixing her hair. When she turns back she looks mortified and starts to say something when Victoria arrives.

"Hey, sorry Crissy, I got distracted." Victoria says, pausing as she puts her stuff down and looks between the two of you. She shoots her cousin a raised eyebrow and a little smirk before turning to you. Her aura ratchets up a few notches and she float-hops forward almost putting herself between your desks. "Victoria Dallon, you can call me Vicky."

Crystal is broadcasting a fiery death in her cousin's direction. Class is going to start in a moment, so if you have anything to say, best say it now.

[X][GG] "The name's James. Crystal and I were already talking" (Slightly less polite)

You incline your head ever-so-slightly to look her directly in the eye. "James. Crystal and I were already talking, Victoria." You turn back to Crystal and offer what pity you can with your eyes. "I see what you were getting at. Less like a mother and more like a pet owner whose puppy just pees all over the place when they're happy. Or sad. Or pretty much anything, really."

Crystal throws a hand up in front of her face and turns away but not before you hear a snort escape and see her shoulders jerk a bit. Her cousin reacts like you expect, hands on hips and floating higher while her aura begins to increase. Maybe your Occlumency skills have just increased that much, but you're unmoved in the face of Glory Girl's aura for ten or fifteen seconds until Crystal chastises her and points to her desk. You wait until her attention is partially back to you before wiping at your brow like it was actually difficult to withstand it.

"You handled that better than most people would," she murmurs to you after making sure Vicky isn't looking.

"I learned how to control myself when I lost my parents last year," you return mildly, "it will take more than a tantrum to bother me." You pause a moment as if in thought. "I can see how dealing with it all the time could be a problem though. Regular shrink visits would probably keep things from being an issue, I assume you have one on retainer?"

She makes a noncommittal noise as the professor starts their lecture, pulling out her phone and texting madly.

Crystal exchanges phone numbers with you later in the week in Programming, ostensibly about help with the class. You're unsurprised that on Friday that Vicky comes in closely following her cousin, who shoots you an apologetic look and is pulled away as soon as class ends.

Crystal literally drags Vicky off after class, the younger girl floating as her cousin pulls her along. You'd offer a jaunty wave but neither girl looks back so you shrug and find a nice sheltered spot to apparate to your warehouse. You've decided that's the safer option, since it has the muggle-repelling charm on it. You'll need to test and see if capes qualify as muggles or not at some point.

By Friday you've cleared the warehouse out and gotten to be a dab hand at cleaning and repairing. A number of the windows have been repaired outright, and you've gotten practice on summoning glass shards and transfiguring them into fixed panes. All of the second and third floor windows are fixed, with the first-floor fanlights over the doors being transfigured into matching stone. You're actually getting a bit better at Transfiguration in general, having taken some time while you were fixing things to practice small inanimate-to-inanimate transfigurations.

Derek has also invited you to a party just off campus later in the evening, apparently some frat or frat adjacent thing.

[X][Party] Attend the party.


	9. Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday

As you're flipping through the warding book a scrap of paper falls out with a wizarding ad stating "If you've been enjoying learning how to ward your home, try learning how to enchant items! Try _Kwick-and-Dirty Enchanting for Fun and Profit!_" To your amazement, summoning the book from the book compartment actually works. You do a bit of reading and manage to get the basics of the simple enchanting it describes down with a minimum of fuss. It really is the very basics—you're not going to be creating a vanishing cabinet, much less the Sorting Hat—but you should be able to make one-shot enchanted items as well as shield hats or rings or the like.

As you're getting ready for the party you go digging through the clothes section of your trunk. The skin-contact thing with your wand worked pretty well with some of the spells you used you'd like to find a second wand holster so you can switch arms your wand is in. You manage to find not only a holster with a cut-out that will grant skin contact to the entire length of the wand, but a box of wands that's dusty enough to come out of Ollivander's shop. You wave a couple of them around and manage sparks from all of them, but only get more than a twinkle or two from a short, reddish-brown wand that shoots a great gout of sparks and nestles securely in the new holster.

You meet up with Derek at his dorm and are quickly introduced to his roommate and some of the other people going including Thor, his RA. Thor lives up to his namesake as a burly reddish-blonde dude with long hair and a braided beard. He's a hell of lot more chill than his Edda counterpart though, offering you a beer to pregame a bit and explaining that the house the party's at is about three blocks off of campus, not frat-related but in an area that rents to frats.

Everyone heads out around ten or so, walking as a group and joined by some of Derek's cousins and Vijay. Erica wanders over and gives you a nod, her sunglasses missing for once and her hair in a very emo-looking swoop over one eye. You head off campus in what ends up being the opposite direction from your apartment and show up only to get waved in immediately by one of the guys standing out front.

Like you'd expect of most parties the music is loud and people are everywhere on both floors and the backyard of the house. There is an actual DJ d-d-d-dropping the bass, a couple of kegs in the backyard with people doing stands, at least two games of beer pong and a fair number of drunk people dancing. You snag a beer instead of whatever's in the mystery punch and mingle a bit.

Erica isn't much for chatting, but Thor's pretty easy to talk to. He's a archeology major with a love of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy period and you feel like you've made a friend for life when you manage to remember the name of his favorite king—Penda. The two of you go on to convincingly beat Derek and yet another cousin of his at beer pong and gain two cheerleaders in Sarah and Susan. Thor gives you a fistbump and wanders off while you chat with the girls for a bit. They actually have a couple of other girls from their floor, and you're introduced as 'Mr. Magic Hands' to Soon-Yi, Savannah, Sierra, and Karen. You finish your beer and stare at all of them for a minute. "Are all of your names like some part of a joke I don't get? How do you all have names that start with S?"

Savannah, an 'honest-to-gawd' southern belle with blonde ringlets and blue eyes gives you a look that you'd believe was guileless if you hadn't taken the time to cast Legilimency. "What kind of name is 'Magic', Mister Hands?"

Everyone gets a good chuckle and most of the girls wander off to talk to people they know or get drinks. Susan stops you and pulls you aside. "Hey, I've told the girls not to get too wasted, but no matter what, none of them are doing anything with Derek or his cousins."

Now _that_ sounded interesting. "He's been alright to me. What's his damage?"

"He's a wannabe pickup artist who likes putting girls down and calling them all kinds of names. He's pretty nasty about it too, and he's the better of them." She leans into your shoulder to keep from yelling everything over the techno. "His male cousins are worse. The girls are normally bitchy and married or engaged even as freshmen and always downplay any complaints. All of them cultivate in-groups around themselves and talk shit about anyone they don't like. They do good parties, but they're not good people."

You tell her you'll keep your eye out and she heads off to find some of her other friends. It's not so crowded that you can't find a quiet spot and try and Legilimence one of Derek's group. You manage to meet eyes with Nick, one of the many cousins and a junior for a moment and nurse a new beer as you touch his mind as lightly as you can. His attention is caught by a pretty Indian girl and his main thought process is trying to figure out how best to sleep with her. His fantasies _are_ a bit violent, complete with slapping her and cumming on her face but he could just be an asshole. You can't probe to see if he gets erections while listening to Hitler speeches without him probably noticing so you drop the connection and wander outside again.

Maybe ten minutes later you're listening to Thor passionately explain why his nickname should actually be _Thunor_ when somebody yells that the Merchants have broken in to the chemistry buildings back on campus. Everyone dives for phones and pulls up their news website of choice. Someone on PHO posting from a dorm nearby says the Merchants have actually hit both the Chemistry and Physics departments, which seems odd before someone mentions that BBU has a _nuclear research reactor_ on campus. Still, you're off-campus, and research reactors aren't nukes. People are discussing if parts of campus will be blocked off after the Merchants leave when sirens start overpowering the music. Heads swivel as not just police sirens sound, but the slightly off tones of PRT vehicles. As it becomes obvious that something's coming your way gunshots are audible as well. You had managed to plant yourself near the fence and can see through the slats as something—maybe two invisible somethings—bounce off cars farther down the street and muzzle flashes pepper the night. There's a _whoosh_ as a streak flies from farther down the street and strikes nothingness which explodes. The next few moments are chaos as more gunfire pops off and smoke billows as something slams in to a house halfway down the block. Some PRT vans and Armsmaster roar past presumably chasing the other invisible vehicle while more come to a stop and begin exchanging gunfire with the still-unseen Merchants.

While the house isn't directly in the crossfire, you need to worry about stray shots as well as possible invasion by Merchants looking for hostages. You can faintly hear a yell from inside the house that someone's been shot and everyone's looking panicky. Do you step in?


	10. Party Foul

You clamp down on any nerves or anxiety that might threaten to creep in with a flex of mental willpower and immediately reach out with your mind sense for the girls. More people are crowding towards the fence to get an eye on what's going on so you let yourself be pushed away and cast a look over the backyard. With only the light by the back door the shadows are deep this far back in the yard. You get a feeling that a mind you're familiar with is farther back and you move that way, looking in the clumps of people that have formed and are nervously milling around. The short form of Susan is getting jostled by people not even paying attention to her and you take three long strides before curling an arm around her shoulders. She jolts and looks up at you from behind her glasses, eyes a little wide and panicky.

"Do you know where the other girls are?" you ask, leaning down to block out the noise.

She frowns, "The kitchen? They wanted water and left me out here."

Shifting your grip down to her hand, you jerk your head towards the door. She laces her fingers in yours and slips behind you to follow in your wake. Someone's standing on the small concrete patio craning their head to look over the fence and you shoulder them aiside and draw Susan after you.

Inside you can see a crowd of people pressing in and talking about some guy who's been shot, a confusing babble of voices telling people to put pressure on things or bring ice packs. Instead of trying to join the crush you weave past a couple off gawkers and make it in to the kitchen, still sheltering the smaller girl behind you. There aren't as many people in here and your eye is drawn to Savannah's pale blonde hair at the other end. As soon as she sees you she waves you over with a wad of paper towels in her hand. "Have you seen Susan?" she demands shrilly.

The named girl comes out from behind your coat and tries to hug the southern belle, but she holds her off. "Soon-Yi's done been shot, I got blood on me! We got her in the garage, ain't no-one in there yet."

Susan freezes at the mention of blood but you tell Savannah to show you the way and prod the brunette down the hallway. The garage is packed full of boxes, six girls, and you. You take a moment to stick a quick notice-me-not on the door—you'd use a muggle-repeller, but you're not sure how far the effect would leak, you could end up causing problems with the girls trying to leave via the garage door.

The girls have Soon-Yi sitting on a ratty couch and are hovering around her while she presses a huge wad of blood-soaked paper towels onto her right arm. You gently move Karen and Sierra aside and kneel next to the Korean girl who seems unresponsive when you call her name. You assume it's shock, her eyes are open and she's breathing, but her pupils have shrunk down to pinpricks and she's staring off into the distance. Reaching out gently, you turn her eyes to meet yours and try to silently cast Legilimency. It fails, as does your second attempt. You allow a bit of urgency to creep into your thoughts and _push_ the next time you cast.

You connect and push into her mind. You still don't have sufficient skill to get a perfect reading of what she's thinking, but there's a repeating theme of '_samchone Jaehyun can't find out_'. A bit more prodding and you figure out that's her uncle, who happens to do bookkeeping for the Ruby Dreams casino—_Lung's_ casino. Fuck, what is this, does _everyone_ in this fucking town know someone gang related?

Pulling back from her worried loop, you give her the mental equivalent of a smack on the nose to get her attention. "Soon-Yi!"

Finally her eyes focus on you and she blinks rapidly. "Magic Han-James! You have to get me out of here, if my uncle finds out what happens I'll get pulled out of school!"

"Whoa, slow. Can I look at your arm?"

She shifts her right arm a bit, wincing and sucking air in through her teeth. Gently lifting the sleeve of her shirt you swallow as the metallic smell of blood hits you. The entrance wound isn't huge, but there's a bloody divot as thick around as your thumb slowly oozing blood down her bicep. You softly cast the diagnostic spell and disguise it by checking for an exit wound. The spell returns the information that she's lost a bit of blood, but not a major amount and there is a foreign body in her arm, all what you expected. It doesn't seem to have hit any major veins or arteries, there's muscle damage but she seems to have escaped a broken bone as well.

The gunfire that has been present in the background draws your attention as an explosion sounds and something—shrapnel?—rattles against the garage door. Your eyes sweep the garage again and you notice a side door leading out hidden behind some boxes.

You have all the spell knowledge needed to fix Soon-Yi up—gently summon the bullet out of her arm and heal it—or you could immobilize her arm with _Ferula _and get her back to campus first. The magic would be pretty obvious though, or you could use the entrancing enchantments you know to distract everyone while you fix her up. You could bunker down and throw up a shield and hope no more stray gunfire comes your way. None of the girls look like they're going to be any help. It's time to make a plan.


	11. The Afterparty

You offer a silent prayer to the gods of fanon and bullshit and start making plans on how to get back to campus.

"Ladies?" You ask, making your voice loud enough to get all of their attention. "There's nothing we can do about this here other than wrap it up, keep her from using the arm, and get the fuck back to campus. I don't think Soon-Yi wants to go to the campus clinic—" you pause as she shakes her head violently, "—and I'm not going to try anything in a dirty-ass garage with a pair of barbecue tongs." You don't really want to perform surgery as your first taste of healing magic either, but it seems like a night full of disappointments.

Taking advantage of the audible revulsion to that mental picture you murmur a _Finite_ at the spell on the door and point to Savannah and Susan. "Go find some liquor for Soon-Yi, it'll take the edge off the pain, 'cause there's gonna be some." As they leave you meet the other girls' eyes and try to push a bit of magic into your voice to make it more compelling. "Karen, Sierra, Sarah, move some of those boxes by the door and let's see if we can see out. If we can leave that way great, if not we'll go out the back door." Finally, you turn back to the Korean girl who is just silently staring at you. "I'm going to look for something to bandage your arm, I will be right back."

As you pass back in to the house it's obvious that there must be something in the air or water that makes people idiots because despite the broken glass and a guy laying on the floor with a leg wound most of the people visible are crowded around the windows and filming the firefight going on. Fucking _idiots_. You duck in to an unused bathroom and shut the door before pulling out a wand and casting _ferula_ on your own right arm. The splint and bandages appear and you cast another spell that causes all the knots to loosen and gather the material before heading back to the garage.

You brace Soon-Yi's arm as gently as you can before ushering the girls back from where they had made a path to the door and try and crack it open. Unsurprisingly it's locked, but with everyone hovering around the couch you manage a soft _alohamora_ and peek out.

You have a direct view of the crash site where empty air is billowing smoke and muzzle flashes. Light from the gunfire and streetlights is glittering off of the broken glass in the street and would make it too damn easy to see you as you tried to escape this way. You'll have to go out the back—you think there was a gate along the back fence. Shutting and wizard locking the door for the moment you step up to the couch and look at all of the faces that turn to you. "We're going out the back, we'd be way too obvious. Hold hands, Soon-Yi in the back. Sierra, you're the tallest, get in the front. _Don't run, _tripping would be bad. Soon, I'll be behind you, if you can't walk I'll carry you." You look at Sierra, "After you get outside go towards the back left, I think there's a gate there. If not we'll make a hole. Got it?"

The girls trade looks and give you nods. Even without full legilimency you get hints of their nervousness. You're not exactly sure of what you're doing yourself, but you're not going to let it show.

"Let's go."

As soon as Soon-Yi disappears through the door you _finite_ the door lock, levitate a large shelf in front of the door and start to exit when simultaneously your shield necklace warms, a _crack_ echoes through the garage and something metallic pings off the concrete. You duck instinctively and swirl to face the garage door while casting another shield, wand in hand without conscious thought. Looking down the bullet is completely flattened, rolling back and forth on the floor. Snatching it off the ground you stash it in your pocket and try to calm your thundering heart while backing out of the garage and sheathing your wand.

You catch up with the girls right as they make it down the back steps and start towards the end of the yard. You pull your phone from a pocket and get ready to turn on the flashlight when you feel a somewhat familiar mind approach. Stopping and turning you look at the person coming out of the shadows. "Thor?"

"James!" Even though he's not loud, he still has his bombastic style. "I thought I saw you go inside." He gives you a look. "I'm glad you're not crowding closer, nobody's listening to me, someone else is gonna get shot."

"I went to find these girls and one of them got hurt," you gesture over to the group with a thumb. "I was planning on getting them back to campus. I thought there was a gate here, d'you know?"

Thor—who was probably a bit drunk—tugs his beard in agitation. "Someone else was hurt? Are you going to get her to the hospital?"

"She doesn't want anything to do with hospitals, but I'm not going to argue with her about it _here_."

"Huh, that's fair. I'll assist you, the gate's right over here." He walks past you towards the fence and you catch up with him at the fence line. It's dark enough that your shorter wand shouldn't be too obvious and you cast a notice-me-not on the fence while making sure Thor and the girls are excluded from the effect. With some luck that will keep people from swarming the gate.

A set of quick introductions between Thor and the girls and he pops the latch. You step through first, wand in hand and hidden in the folds of your jacket. Pushing your mind-sense as far as you can you sense nothing, then turn the flashlight on on your phone. You see scrub and trees in between the fence and a house that's having some serious construction work done to it. There's wood everywhere and a dumpster blocking the view of the next street.

You poke your head back through and wave everyone out. "Thunor, get your phone out and use the flashlight to get us to the next street, girls follow him, I'll bring up the rear again."

Thor blinks at the name change he had mentioned earlier and straightens up with a nod to you. "Of course."

You fire a _finite _and close the gate behind you, catching up to the girls who are keeping Soon-Yi protected in their midst. You take the time to cast a supersensory charm and listen for anyone coming up behind you but you seem to have made a clean escape. The gunfire has slackened a bit-you hope the firefight's almost over. Almost as soon as you think that a series of _whump_s tell you that someone's brought out the explosives. Without saying anything you try hurrying the girls along a little faster.

At the next street everyone pauses while Thor points out a path partway down the block between two houses that students use that will take you almost all the way back to campus. You're about to start out when your still active charm picks up a deep rumble heading your way. You barely have enough time to get everyone to hide behind the building supplies before two more PRT trucks, this time with foam turrets roll past at a fast clip.

As you all go to stand, Soon-Yi tips and almost falls before Sierra catches her. She keeps trying to use her right arm for things and is stumbling because of them.

You hit her with a featherweight charm and sheathe your wand before scooping her up and throwing Thor a nod. "Lead on, Thunor."

"At once, cyning."

You shake your head and follow him. You really hope he's not secretly an E88 member, he's turned out to be an amusing and dependable guy. _Really_ hung up on old Anglo-Saxon history and prone to randomly use old English, but a good dude.

After the tension of leaving the party, getting back on to campus is child's play. Campus police are blocking the major entrances, but your group manages to slip through a service road and past the unloading docks behind the cafeteria without being seen. Flashing lights draw your attention to the main quad that everyone walks across where it looks like half the police force are sitting around a fallen statue and staring at the torn up lawn.

About halfway to the girls' dorm you pass the campus clinic and you try once more to get Soon-Yi to go in but she's vehemently against it. "No, no, no! My family can't find out about this at all—my uncle will get me pulled out of school," she hisses.

"The fuck do you expect me to be able to do about the bullet in you, I'm not a goddamn surgeon, woman!"

Soon-Yi's close to tears with worry and stress you can feel even without legilimency. "Just get it out somehow and bandage it up, I'll come up with an excuse tomorrow somehow—glass from a broken window or something."

You hiss in irritation. "I don't like this at all. Let's get to your room and get this over with before I decide it's a horrible idea. We'll probably have to sneak in."

Thor nods and breaks in to the conversation. "Yes, they'll have one of the RA's checking IDs and making sure that the only people coming in are the ones who live there, especially with the break-in."

"Do you have a roommate? If not we could try your room instead," Karen asks you.

"I don't even live here, I have an apartment. Unfortunately it's all the way off the other side of campus. It'd be close to an hour before we got there."

"Mmm, the best way would be for a few of you ladies to go back in to your dorm and head upstairs after checking in," Thor offers. "Some of you can make sure the coast is clear and one of you can let us in through the back doors, people use them to smoke all the time."

"Perfect. Savannah, Sarah, Susan, go in, we'll wait around back." The girls head out and you get Karen and Sierra to guide you around to the back of the building while staying out of sight. No one seems to be outside back there so it's a simple wait of a few minutes before Savannah's blonde curls poke out of the door.

Making your way to Soon-Yi and Karen's room, you get Karen to strip away the sheets before you lay the wounded girl on the edge of her bed and start peeling away the bandage. It hasn't bled excessively but in the brighter light of the dorm room the ruby-red of the blood and the missing chunk of flesh elicits heaves from a couple of the girls.

"Are you _sure_ you want me to do this?" you plead a final time.

Soon might be a bit punch-drunk at this point. "Yes! Come on Mr. Magic Hands—"

"This is not a _Magic Hands_ occasion goddammit!" you snap before cutting your eyes over to the rest of the group. "Alright, I need to wash my hands. Do any of you have vodka or everclear or anything like that to wash this wound with? Also if any of you have a first aid kit I need that, and I'll also need something to grab the bullet with. Needlenose pliers would be best, but two pairs of tweezers might work." You stare at the multiple pairs of blinking eyes and snap your fingers. "C'mon, if I'm doing this bullshit let's get it done."

Thor shakes his head as the girls scatter and clasps your shoulder. "I should get back to my dorm. You are a good man, James." He ducks out as the girls start returning, collecting a few hugs as he goes.

When everyone is gathered together again you have a small first-aid kit, three mini-bottles of vodka, and _eight_ pairs of tweezers. Sighing, you lay everything out before turning to the girls. "I'm not going to do this with an audience. It's going to be bad enough doing this, I don't need all of you freaking out while I'm trying to take care of Soon." You gather them all together and usher them towards the door. "Pick one of your dorms, I'll come get you when I'm done."

Closing the door you crack open two bottles pouring one into a cup and handing it to the Korean girl. "Drink up."

Soon-Yi blinks at you. "You've already had me drink a whole lot…"

"Aspirin's not gonna cut it for painkilling, gotta do what I can. Just chug, don't worry about coughing."

As she does it and turns her head to cough from the burn you pull out your main wand and hit her with an entrancing enchantment and the local anaesthetic. Hopefully she's feeling agreeable now. "You're not feeling any pain now, are you?"

Giggling, the girl turns to look at you. "That totally helped, James."

"Great." You strip off your coat and your newer wand holster, putting it in a pocket of your jacket. Rolling up your sleeves you hit your main holster with a notice-me-not and wash your hands well. "So, Soon, why don't you turn your head away from what I'm doing and tell me a story about something—you got a boyfriend I'm gonna have to throw down with for putting my hands on you?"

Soon-Yi seems agreeable, turning her head to look at the wall and starts talking about how her boyfriend from Winslow broke up with her this summer.

You clean the wound with a _tergeo _before using the diagnostic again. She's a bit lower on blood than she was and there's a tiny bit more damage. Putting your wand into the wound you summon the bullet and gently pull it out of her into a wad of tissues. Another set of _tergeos_ and you start in with _episkeys_ at the deepest parts of her wound. It's not going to heal up the way it should, but it's better than leaving an inch-deep hole in the girl's arm.

Soon-Yi's one-sided conversation has wandered from her boy troubles to her complaints about her parents' insistence she does pre-med when she wants to be a lawyer instead.

You finish by slathering the external wound in antibacterial ointment and wrapping her arm in gauze. You hadn't studied charms that would be of use for stab or gunshot wounds, but she shouldn't be at risk of infection. "Soon? You're patched up but you're gonna need to have someone with some actual training to look at this, otherwise you're gonna have a big nasty scar later."

She cuts off her rant about overbearing parents to frown. "I…know a couple of people. I think Haeun's a nurse now…"

You pat her shoulder and make sure there's some blood on your fingers so it looks like you've actually done work. "I'm gonna get the rest of the girls. Just try and relax and don't move your arm."

Opening the door all of the girls are—of course—crowded in the hallway instead of waiting in one of their rooms. You hold up a hand before they can get loud. "She's fine, I need one of you to turn on the water so I can wash my hands." Savannah goes green and turns away immediately, but Sierra helps without a blink. The girls move between checking in on Soon-Yi and giving you hugs and thanks until you start edging towards the door. It's Susan who finally stands in the doorway with her arms crossed who asks the question.

"Where do you think you're going, James?"

Looking behind you at the inquiring faces and back to the stormy-eyed brunette you try for your best innocent look. "Back to my apartment? Getting caught in your rooms would cause all kinds of problems."

A head jerk from Susan has Karen slide back both of you and come back a moment later. "Bathroom's clear."

Susan gives you a _look._ "Go use the bathroom and come back. You're not walking home at two in the fucking morning, you'll be sleeping in here."

A handful of minutes later finds you back in the room where they've pulled a couple of mattresses in from the other rooms. You're peeled out of your shirt and jeans and womanhandled into Soon-Yi's bed on your back, with the girl spooned against you so she can lay her bandaged arm on your chest. Even with her looking down you can feel the heat from her blush on your chest. Karen has joined the other girls in the floor pile and they chat quietly as you try to figure out what happened. Savannah's taking a bunch of ribbing for having a weak stomach but she insists it's completely different when she's gone hunting with her father.

You finally give in with a sigh and raise your voice. "Did all of you drink water to help with any hangovers?"

Rather than assent you get a bunch of whispering and laughing before a giggling voice says, "Why would we need to with Mr. Magic Hands here?"

You let out a low groan that makes Soon-Yi shift around. "Good _night_ girls."


	12. Weekend 1—Merchant Maneuvers

You'd think that you would have fallen asleep immediately after a crazy night like that. Unfortunately Soon-Yi seems to be a twitchy sleeper and you end up getting kneed in the thigh a couple of times before you both rearrange yourself so you're spooning her instead. _Then_ you pass the fuck out for a while.

When you wake up the next time there's light shining through the blinds that you can see even through a ton of silky black hair all over your face. Your left arm is dead from the girl in front of you laying on it and your right is being held in a deathgrip. What's more confusing are the breasts pressing in to your back and the arm that's wedged in between Soon and yourself. You take a moment to extend your mind sense and try to figure out which hand is rubbing the hair of your happy trail and decide that it's Savannah. For a while you just breathe in the faintly sweet scent of Soon's hair until the girl behind you finally seems to realize you're awake and snatches her hand back and rolls off the bed. You chuckle and begin extracting yourself from Soon-Yi's bear-trap like grasp. You murmur the diagnostic while you're close and the sleeping girl seems fine, coming up as infection-free and while she was still low on blood it was starting to make a recovery. After that it was the work of another minute or two but you manage to get free and sit on the edge of the bed. Four pairs of amused eyes (and one blushing pair) stare back at you as you try to shake some feeling into your left arm.

Sierra sits on the bed next to you, grabs your dead arm and does something that apparently makes your face look amusing because the girls dissolve in quiet giggles as the dreadlocked girl prods feeling back into you.

"Thanks, Miss Magic Fingers."

Another wave of giggles rolls through the room and you get a nastily sharp poke from the girl, who has a blush you can actually see on her dark skin. Susan cuts in and offers you a mug of coffee which you decline, and once your left arm's back in working condition Sarah makes her way to the mattress in front of you and holds out her arm expectantly.

"You're not hungover," you point out softly, then smirk when she pouts at you. Luckily, you had done some quick research on the internet for just such an occasion and scoot forward while slowly moving your hands towards her hair. "This is just for relaxation, not pain."

Sarah freezes when your fingers slide through her hair just over her ears and cup the back of her head. With soft pressure you gently scratch at her scalp and try to cast a low-powered cheering charm. It only takes two tries to work and her eyes go wide when the charm takes effect. "Fuck, magic hands," she almost purrs.

Of course you are then pretty much required to do the same to each of the girls. Sierra demurs at first because of the dreadlocks but switching the massage points to her temples works perfectly fine. The only downside is that Soon-Yi seems to have been awoken by the noise and she drags herself upright and hangs her legs off the bed only to lean against your side. You give her the same treatment along with a casting of the simple painkiller and she murmurs something you think might be Korean and lays her head down in your lap.

"Soon doesn't feel like she has a fever which is good, but you're gonna need to monitor that if any of you have a thermometer." You peel the dressing off of her wound and use the last of the gauze and antibacterial ointment to re-do it with Karen's help. "And since I doubt she's changed her mind come up with some kind of decent story to tell the nurse or clinic or whatever." You poke Soon in the nose and she looks up at you like a grumpy kitten. "Don't wait too long either. I'm not a miracle worker, if there's an infection or something like that it needs to be dealt with sooner than later."

Grumbling stomachs—including yours—finally persuade everyone to get up, dressed, and make your way towards the cafeteria. You find yourself walking under a warming charm with Savannah having stolen your coat. The girls swirl around you chatting amongst themselves and occasionally bringing you into the conversation.

After eating you're nursing a cup of tea and trying to come up with a polite way of disappearing when Susan gives you a look. Pulling her hair over her shoulder she leans in and says, "You're full up on conversation for the day, aren't you?"

You huff out a little laugh. "Sorry, was it obvious?"

"_I'm_ like that with the girls sometimes. Just give out some hugs and go, otherwise Soon and Savannah will have you here all day."

Luckily Susan's advice works out well, you're able to escape after a few minutes of exchanging phone numbers, giving out hugs, and ransoming your coat back from the southern girl in exchange for a second dose of 'magic hands'. You check everything over to make sure nothing's been lost before finding a safe spot and apparating to your lair.

You spend the rest of the morning cleaning up the third floor and erecting a couple of walls. Some decorative art (actually old Transfiguration practice pieces) enchanted with warming charms makes it pretty comfortable, and you set aside spaces for potions brewing and rune carving so you're not mixing workspaces. You also take the time to pull a big four-poster bed out of storage and set up a bedroom here so you have the option to sleep in either location. Around lunchtime you take a moment to search through the book section for something about contraceptive charms.

Your searches bear fruit when you summon out a pamphlet with notes in the margins. It lays out a set of basic contraceptive charms for male and female that last for about a day, then goes on to list longer-term options including a couple of potions. The notes around the spell section point out that 'runic-cast versions would last months, and ritual versions would be permanent until dispelled'. The notes also detail a couple of…. supplementry charms that with a little reading between the lines look like they have an affect on your refectory period and create lube respectively.

Taking the time for some follow-up on the attack on the party you read through a couple of threads on PHO and watch the associated videos. Neither you nor the girls seem to appear anywhere in the ones that haven't been pulled offline already. It looks like you chose to leave at the right time as well, as the noises you had heard were grenades. Miss Militia and Merchant backup had arrived around the same time and things had ended in a destroyed cloaked truck-thing and about half the Merchants on site taken into custody. All the partygoers went through a lengthy process of vetting that didn't see them home until past dawn although the dude who got shot lived, so that's good.

With the increased… volatility of the Merchants you're even more willing to look in to the Cooks Avenue brownstone. It's probably not a warehouse, maybe a distribution facility, but maybe you can get some idea as to what's prompted the recent changes.

You nap the later afternoon away and wake again after sundown. You pull out the dragonhide(?) outfit and slide yourself into it and feel it seal together and shrink to fit you like a second skin. Actually, you spend a couple of minutes posing in front of a mirror because _damn._

After prying yourself away from being narcissistic you supplement your armor with dark jeans, a dark blue hoodie, and a grey scarf. No reason to look like a cape, you're just a guy investigating a suspicious place, right? Checking over your load out you make sure your spare wand is close at hand and grab a few wardstones you had used for pratice—they won't last long, but you could use them to set up a temporary blind or something if needed.

You apparate to the alcove you had previously used and immediately begin scanning around you for people. The building you're against still seems empty so after checking it over you look inside and apparate there. Wand out you head up the stairs and find the roof access, letting yourself out with a quick _alohamora_. Once outside you drop a notice-me-not wardstone and fire up the supersensory charm along with a warming charm for comfort. You're in no hurry really, so you spend quite a few minutes looking over the roof before you feel comfortable that there's only one camera, pointed directly down at the top of the roof access hatch. That may be a problem when it comes time to get in, but a closer look wouldn't hurt. You pull out a second wardstone and apparate over to the other roof but hold off on placing it down. With a better view something amazing made itself known—a skylight. Moving over to it you can see that the glass is dirty and cracked, badly patched with duct tape and plastic, but you can still see through to the room beneath.

Deciding to skip the ward on this roof you reach out once again to feel minds and find them far below you, probably on the first or second floors. A flex of magic and you find yourself in the bedroom under the skylight and immediately start breathing through your mouth as the rank smell of sweat and unwashed everything smacks you upside the head. You dearly wish you knew the bubble-head charm as you look around this absolute trash pile of a room. Clothes are strewn everywhere in large drifts along with random pills, almost-empty baggies of weed, and miscellaneous calibers of ammo. What's worse is that everything looks _greasy. _Very carefully making your way to the door you silence it before cracking it open and letting out a silent sigh of relief when the rest of the building just smells dirty rather than actively foul.

The rest of the rooms on this floor have small cots or mattresses laying on the ground and seem seldom-used by the stale air and dust around. Silencing your steps you go to the third floor and find one room that looks to be the 'armory', with an AK-47 on a table along with boxes of ammunition stacked haphazardly on some cheap shelving right next to unloaded magazines. Of the two other used rooms, one seems to be in the process of having something built in it—given the glassware and gas tank you'd guess meth? In any case it doesn't seem complete, with boxes and things strewn about and no lights on. The other has no space for you to enter as it's covered in grow lamps and weed plants, with heavy foil taped on the walls.

By the time you make it down to the second floor you feel able to use the sensory charm again without throwing up. Sitting on the steps between floors two and three you can hear the conversation pretty clearly.

"-ell that cocksucker Wayne that if he wants us to start pushing that shit it needs to be cleaner." Whoever's shouting has a sick burr to his voice like he's been punched in the throat one too many times. "That last batch was fuckin' China White and fucked a coupla guys up bad enough that they started lookin' elsewhere. Don't give me shit junk and then bitch when no one wants to buy it."

"I'll tell 'em Randy. Gonna be later than usual, it was Jamal's crew's truck that got blown up so we're short until Squealer makes another one."

The first raspy voice starts up again. "Shit, how long's that gonna be? Those fuckers need to keep her ass on a leash, least Skidmark kept her making shit or sucking dick instead of fuckin' Tinkering whatever bullshit idea she pulled out her cunt." There's the noise of a door opening and a couple of people walk out. A wet hawk and spit makes you grimace. "Try to get my shit here before dawn, need to divide it up by the time my guys get here."

The door slams and a number of locks click. "Fuckin' assholes can't do anything right. Make the stupid fuckin' trucks invisible, sure, then they're gonna use 'em to pull that stupid shit at the college. Shit, one goddamn invisible van would be plenty to move shit around but do they listen to me? Nah. Fuckin' retarted-ass twat."

A voice you hadn't heard before gives a hum. "Hell yeah, brother. You right."

"Yeah, I'm always fucking right when it comes to pushin' weight." There's a hiss of a can being opened and some gulping noises. "Gonna finish counting Tito's shit then we'll get some fucking food."

"Alright man."

You slip back up to the third floor and wait as someone stomps up the steps and unlocks a room on the second floor. Curiously—and luckily for you—you don't hear a door close, so you make sure you're still silenced and creep down. Once on the second floor you can hear the faint sound of someone watching something on a phone downstairs, and one person counting money in the room up ahead which matches with the two minds you sense in the house.

In the end all you have to do is crack the door open slightly and stun the counter, then bind him with (real) zipties and conjured ropes. The guy downstairs is equally simple, only needing slightly better aim to knock him out.

Placing muggle-repelling spells and _colloportus_ on both front and back doors, you levitate both Merchants into a room on the second floor and stick them magically to chairs, and the chairs to the floor.

Doing a sweep of the stash house you gather all the obvious guns together and make a note of the money and drugs.

Weapon-wise there are a bunch of knives, batons, and bats, but the main weapons are the guns. After summoning and checking your prisoners for weapons you lay everything out on a card table. The AK-47 is the only long gun in the place, but there are three Glocks, one with an absurdly long magazine hanging out the bottom. One bigass revolver that's like a foot long that claims to be a Smith and Wesson Model 29, and there's also a tiny pocket pistol with 'Ruger' on the side. There are extra magazines for everything, some loaded, some not, and boxes and loose bullets everywhere in the armory.

The counting room has a bunch of loose bills that were in the middle of being counted, so you have no idea how much is there. More than a grand, less than ten-thousand maybe? There's also a safe bolted to the ground that's electronic that doesn't respond to your _alohamora_.

The drug room has more drugs than you've even seen in one place, and many of them aren't labelled. Lots of weed, a couple of bags of mushrooms, what might be LSD, a couple of different sacks of pill, and lots and lots of powder. All of that is separated into sections, but unfortunately no one decided to pull out the labelmaker and make this easy on you, so all you know is that some of the powder is white and some is off-white.

Of the two people in the building, the first-floor guy looks to be a meathead providing muscle. He's fucking ripped and covered in tattoos with an honest-to-god mullet. Counting-room dude is wearing a stained wifebeater and has a bit of meth-mouth going on. He looks to be where the grease came from, glistening even from a distance and you're kind of unwilling to touch him even with gloves on.

In the end this looks like it just happens to be a drug distribution center, not a secret Tinker lab. You have the run of the place until someone shows up and gets suspicious. What are you going to do?

You're gonna take the knives and batons if only for enchantment practice.

[X][Guns] Take everything

[X][Prisoners] Keep the guy knocked out, open an eyelid and use active Legilimency on him. (Easier, but less practice than you would get with an awake subject.)

You check both of your prisoners to make sure they aren't going to wake up before pulling your trunk and loading the money and guns into the empty fifth compartment. Shrinking it and securing it back in your pocket you levitate Greasy over to the wall and stick his head to it. Finding another chair doesn't take long and you peel an eyelid open and stick that open too. You light the tip of your wand and wave it back and forth and get no reaction other than feeling vaguely like an ophthalmologist for a moment. Assured that he's completely out you firm up your Occlumency, point your wand and cast.

"Legilimens!"

v̷H̵i̷s̶ ̶n̸a̶m̶e̵ ̷i̶s̵ ̸R̵a̶n̷d̷y̴ ̶b̵u̸g̷s̷ ̶u̷n̶d̸e̷r̵ ̴m̴y̷ ̶s̸k̶i̵n̸J̶o̷h̶a̸n̸s̶e̸n̵ ̷a̵n̸d̴ ̶h̴e̸'̴s̷ ̸a̸ ̵m̴i̶d̵-̴l̷e̴v̸e̵l̵ ̶d̷r̴u̵g̷ ̷d̴e̵a̵l̵e̸r̶ ̸f̷o̷r̶ ̸t̷h̵e̴ ̷M̷e̷r̷c̸h̶a̴n̶t̸s̸.̸ ̷H̷a̵s̶ ̵b̵e̷e̶n̷ ̸f̵o̶r̴ ̷y̷e̸a̶r̵s̵.̸ ̸H̷e̴'̷s̷ ̵a̴ ̸h̸o̵r̷r̸i̵b̴l̵e̵ ̴e̷x̸c̷u̶s̷e̸ ̵o̸f̸ ̶a̵ ̶h̴u̸m̸a̶n̵ ̸.γɘnom nɒʜɈ ɿɘʜɈɒɿ noiɈɒmɿoʇni ɿoʇ mɘʜɈ ϱnizɘɘυpƨ bnɒ ̷͔̈́͘a̴̼̺͑̉̚n̴̝̄̓̓̈́d̵̨̙̫̺̖̑̈́͆́̂̽͗ ̶͚͇͉̙̝̣͔̑͜i̵̢̞͎̣͙̙̫̩͒͂̈́̕t̷͕̩̘̝͉̂́̒͐̈́͘'̵̪̳͈̺̫̇̌̏͊̕͠s̴̨͇͓̩̪͉̆̅̈͋ ̶̖̭̭͕̀͗̉̓̓͛a̷̺̥͌̎̈́̑̈́̽̈́̑͜l̴̢͙͍̬̀̌̑̔̉̌l̸̜̲̝̎ ̷̼̝̬̈́̃̾̓i̶̢͔̦̻͔͉̾̆̑̄̅͝n̶͙̮͙̝͍̣͆̽́̈ ̸͓͋̉̑h̸̢͎͍̰̮̹͔͆͌͑̇͠͠͠į̵͚̰̟̪͔̘̅̋ș̴̦͚͈̏̑ ̶̛̼̀̈́͆́́̿̕h̴̢̠̰̖͎̺̩͎̏̓̓͌e̸̮͗ā̷̡͇͉̬̑̆̉̊d̴̛͔͒̂̕͘.̷̟̒͗͛͒̽̀̿̕ ̸͉̦͙̻̙̳̞̑̓̌̽̋̅H̷̱̱͙͕̀̓̕e̴̡͈̜̯͖̭̿͛̎̽̌ͅ ̸͇̦̜͈͈̾̐́͊̽̕p̴̱̺͇͓̮͚̦̆͂͋͗̔a̶͚̲͖̯̼̾͛ɿooq bnɒ ƨƨɘlɘmoʜ ɘʜɈ ϱniɈɔibbɒ ƨɈυlƨ ϱniʞɔυʇ γd Ɉi ɿɘvo ƨɘlυɿ bnɒ ƨʞɔob ɘʜɈ ʇo ʞɿɒq bnɒ bɿɒγ niɒɿɈ ɘʜɈ ƨloɿɈnoɔ ƨɈɿυʜ γbod niɒq ɘH .bɒɘʜ ƨiʜ ni llɒ ƨ'Ɉi bnɒ miʜ oɈ ϱniʜɈγnᛞᛇᛞᚾ'ᛏ•ᛚᛇᚲᛖk̵͖̟̦̿̿̽̏̿͘i̴̙͔̺͖͙̍͒̇̂̑͋n̵̖̱̤̪̠̅̋̇̇̇̈͝͝g̴̨̢͚̠̣̗͐̈́̌̂͝ ̸̡̨̥̱̥̳̈́s̴̬̪̽̚ͅl̵̬̪͓͂͛̍͒ǔ̶̢̩̹͎͇̱͇̜̄̎̉͛̎͘͝t̴̝͇͚̰̻̩̽͋̇s̶̹̿͆̈́̄̍̅̌ ̵̧̬͕̠͙͖̙̽a̴̠̥̠̜͎̮̲̜̿̅d̴̟̥̝̺̳̼̱̊͘d̷̥͌ĩ̶̧͒͂̍͊̅c̴̘̝̱̖͖͉͑̂͐̓͑̌̾̎ẗ̴̗̩͎́̈́͘ͅį̸̠̖̀̔̿̕n̴̟̺̪̲̣̹̆̃̽̈́̅̎̏͘ĝ̴̢̦̱̪̰̤̀́̑̃̓̇ͅ ̴͎̞̮͎̼̌t̴͙̠͓̎̒̇͑̍̿̂ḩ̶̛̥̦̲̠̃̿͋́̽̍̎͜ͅȩ̷̤̭̙̯̋̈́ ̴̣̩̆͠ḧ̶̡̠̺̺̯̬͈̻̇̾ó̸̡̼̙̺̹͍́͂̀̇̊̍̕ͅm̴̡̗̜͎̲͛̍͝ë̷̹͖́l̴̤͓̻̠͖̔̍͒͝ḙ̸̡̢̝̱͉̯̺̅͂ș̵͇̻̈͒́̍͒ͅŝ̷̡̞͈̠̎̿̆̄͠ ̸͕̻̟̩͙̊̋̂͑͆̈́a̶̹̰̓̎͛͑̿͘͠n̸̦̟͈͆̕͝d̴͈̯̖̳̈́ ̸̠̭̫̘͎̀̓̚͜p̵͚̝̀̆̕ǫ̷͕͇͔͕̂̅̌̈́̈́̚͜͜ỏ̵͉̆̓ͅr̴̮̲̩͔̫̯̲͔̐̍̒ ̸͙̲̐̑̍͝ȃ̶̡̞̗̱͖͊̍͠n̸̩̟̖͚̹̥͕̅̓͋̀͆̍͆̚d̶͍̮̯͑̔̑ ̷̡̭̭̦̣͕̤͝s̷̳͍̟͓̫̐̍́̕̕q̵̭̥̝̦͙̺̟́͘͜ù̴̢͔͚͉̣̑̅͘̚͠ͅe̷̢͔̣̜̗͌̿̌̕͝ė̷̼̔͛͗̾̒z̵̹̳̈i̵̧̛̘̯͉̪̻͎̇̆́̄̋͋ͅǹ̷̪̪̱̝̺̜̪g̵̡̣̩̺̺̲̍̿̋ ̷̮͈͕̊̆͐̐t̵̗̺͔̪͔̍́̑̏̓̒͠h̸͍͊e̶̝̘̍m̵̢̙̣̰̳͙̆̈́̌̒͒͘͝ ̶̣͈́̄̇́̋̚̚f̵̻̩̼̫̅̂́̽o̷̹̬͛͊͑̓͑͝ř̷͔͔̯͑͋̄̍̔̄ ̸̣̑̈̐̈́̾͠ͅį̵̣͙̜̮̈́̓̓̾̽̿̚͘n̵̦̣̮̈́̐̏̄̕f̴̨̖͖̲͇͙̬̬̈́̇̏ᛞᚱᚢᚷȏ̷̮̪̭͑ͅr̴̤̳͍̈́̍̔m̶͍̖̖̰̊̐́̈́̋̾̂̚a̵͍̣̼̜͑̂͑́̚t̶̩̘̲̹̲̠͎͆̿̀͒́͐̂͝i̶̺͕͊̽͐̍̃̈́͒ǫ̸̧̨͔̼̫͍̫͆̈́̚n̸̨̡̖̘̭̼̥̬͐̋̇̿̌̀͌̕ ̵̳̱̙̝̭̞͗͋͌͋͘͠r̷͓̹̜̠̪̄̾̀͗̾̑ä̵̼͚͖́̇̍̾̈́͊̀ţ̶̛̣̫̹̅̌̍̍̕͝ͅȟ̷̢̲̌͆͌e̴̳͎̤̝̞̦̚r̵͔͎͒͐͂̈́̓̍̓͝ ̵̡͓̯̭̹͎́̑͛̍̍͌̊t̷̢̲̱͕͙͓͔͒̏͌ḫ̸̢̤͍̟̦̾ȃ̵̢̠̜̥͎̲̔̎̀̋̒͝n̶͚̈́͆ ̸̢̹́̉̾͋̄̈́͜͜͝m̶̦͖̪̳̮̰̪̿̅̎̀͆ŏ̶̭n̵͖̖̪̲̦̐̃́̈̕ȇ̸͎̭͇̭͕̎̏̉̌̐̌͝y̴̗̎.̴̣̞͕̥̪̀̉̓͂ ̶̺̆͛̏̉̿̾H̵͚̗͖̰̋e̵̡̖̞̲͋̓̚'̷̨̛̬̩͉̺̐́͑̾̄̐͝ͅͅs̸̡̡̮̗͎̼̻̆̈́͐ ̶̢̨̛̘̟̼͊c̷̝͋͆ò̵̢͇̟͕̱̱͚͙͑͑̕n̶̜͕̭̖̪̱̣̈́̅͆͘s̸̳̳͚̜͇̮̖̋̕͝t̸̢̿̆̔͊͛̎͝ȃ̵̠͔̰̲͓́̌̆̆̚͠ň̸̺͇t̸̡̪̲̙̦̉̈́ͅl̴̫̗̤̖̼̫̬̝͆͆̑͘y̶̦͒ ̴̙͓̠̠̦̅͒̎̾̇ö̵̼̦̖́̆̇n̶̼͙̭͕͕̈́́̈́͐ ̸̨̢̟̟̦̼̻̪͆̋̎̕d̵̼̏̂ȓ̸̻̘̦̌̊̅̾̈͘u̸̳͔̓̐͂̉g̴̫̠̦̤̙̍s̴̛̭̰͈̒̌̓̉̈́̌̽—̷̧̠̲͓̻̬̇̔͆̒̈́̾̚͝c̴̩͚̤̪̎̀ͅớ̴̮̤c̵͖̬̤͍̍̇̒͆̓̓ȁ̸͕̗̆͐͝ĩ̷̢͖͠n̵̨̬̾̐̒̏̔͆̎͘ę̷̛̦̟̳̫̭͈͐̋̈̔͑͗,̴̙͚̎̿̐͘ ̶̨̩͕̘̞̲̏̌͒̑̉̏͛ͅw̷͚͖̦̹͇̥̽̇͆̔̔͑̌ė̸̺̟͌̋͝e̸̹̖̞̺̜̰̓͗͆͊̃̽́d̵̩̎͊̉͒̂,̷̥̟̞͓̎͗͐̅̆͊̒͑ ̶̗̜̳̝̭̺̃h̷̢͖̦̣̏̍͗e̵̡̘͚͒͂̐̏̐̚r̵̨̡͈͚̉͆̾͋͗͠o̵̧̬̤̽̌̎̊͝i̷̡̬̝̪͍̭̭̱̐́̄̈́̇̃͝n̵̤͓̳̄́̔̆̄̓̽͝,̵͕̣͋̓̈̂̀̆̉ͅ ̸̢̢̩̲̤̝͖̯̆̆̌̓͂h̵̲͕̯̱̓͌̎͋͒̉͋͜͝ę̶̞̹̝̭̜̝̉̓̎͐͘͝'̵̮̭̯̀̾̽̈̊̚͠͝s̴͚̭̀̅̄̍̍͠ͅ ̵̜̰͇̮̮̫͊̆͂͝ͅͅt̵͖͙̊̋̅̄͛̓̈́̚r̴̫̞̼̘͂̀̾̽͗́͠į̴͓̰̼̮̫̓̏̈́̒͛̚e̸̹̲̲̭͂̂̇̓̈́d̷̦̅̀ ̴̝̦̹̙̟̝̈́͌̈̾̐̄̊o̶̡͍̥̪̳̝͆́̆̋͜r̴̞̣̦̤̘̉̈́͛͐͝ ̵͈͕͈̆̐͗̕͝ȗ̴̦͓̘̟̫͆͐̓̕ś̶̪̮̗͖̙̃͑ę̵̮̗̮̟̠͛͋̿̿̅̆͝ś̷͎͈͓̹̤̓ ̷̨̛̦̳͉͈̲̀͆̂t̷̥̞̙͔͎̖̉̾͂͑̍̈͛͠h̴̰͑̏̏͋̓͘e̴̡̪͖̤̥̠͖̰͋̅̄̔͒̍͠ḿ̵̢͕͚̪͈͚͍͚͗̚ ̶̣͎̬͔̥̔͂͜ȁ̴̫͚͜l̵̨̜̰̖̟̮͓̒̚ḷ̸̼̠́̽͒̌̔͛̽͘.̵̲͉̘͇̍̔̚

You jam your eyes closed and slam every mind-arts-related ability you have because fuck that was too much. You hit yourself with a painkiller and look to make sure that didn't explode the dude's head or anything. Honestly you really don't want to try again, but you do. This time you merely look at the crazy mesh of thought, memory, and feelings that constantly churn together for a bit before trying to impose order on it so that you can use it. With the guy's forced nap you have the run of his mind and slowly you manage to come up with a system that works.

Pulling out once more you check the time—twenty minutes have passed, but nothing seems to have interrupted and you sense no other life hanging around. This time you push into Randy's mind with purpose and skim it for useful information.

Randy Johansen is a mid-tier drug distributor for the Merchants, and has been for almost a decade. He's a horrible asshole of a person, perfectly willing to attack people he thinks have wronged him (or he just doesn't like the look of) through addicting their loved ones to the drugs he controls.

In addition to being a worthless sack of shit though, Randy knows a fair amount about how the Archer's Bridge Merchants work. He knows a number of figures above him in the loose distribution network that the Merchants use. You pull the names from his mind for later while seeing what changes have been made to the Merchants.

After extracting everything you can about the gang from his head you try—out of curiosity if nothing else—to pull knowledge out of his head. The only useful skills he seems to have that stick out (besides the drug-related ones) are basic gun handling skills and playing guitar. You copy them over to your mind and place them with the Merchant information to be unpacked later.

You also found the code to the safe, so popping that open shows a knife and gun, as well as bundled cash that looked like it was both blood and drug stained. You take your favorite divination spell framework and search for 'dried blood', cast the four-point spell and watch as your wand goes crazy over the safe's contents. You decide not to touch that with a proverbial ten fool pole

Instead you summon phones and get five from the two of them. Two were from meathead, who gets a cursory mental check and seems to be exactly what he looks like. He's every bit the druggie that most Merchants are, but his poison involves steroids and weed. You flip through Randy's contact list and recognize names from the info you've pulled out of his head, so keeping the phone wouldn't accomplish much other than making you possibly trackable. Instead you get ready to dial 911 on one phone, the PRT hotline on a second, and download a text-to-speech app and put in a little speech. Dialing both numbers and starting the voice as soon as they connect you head downstairs and dispel everything on the doors, then work your way back up. In the counting room the PRT and 911 dispatchers are yelling at each other as if they were the actual callers. You do hear claims that cops are on their way so you merely dispel the conjured ropes and leave the guys ziptied to the chairs.

Popping to the first roof you install yourself in your warded blind and fire off an alohamora at the front door to push it open. You don't expect a great reaction time from either group but you're pleasantly surprised when less than five minutes later a red blur smears down the street before resolving into Velocity. With a quick check of the sky to make sure no one's airborne to see you you pull the final stone and apparate away.

Sunday morning you get up and spend some time practicing your Occlumency before knocking out your homework for the upcoming week. A little before noon you get a text from Susan asking if you'd like to join the girls in heading off campus to get burgers—they promise no Fugly Bob's.

Meeting them at their dorm you're greeted with a round of hugs and you all make your way to some new burger joint that's opened up on the other end of the Boardwalk. The place seems like a Five Guys knockoff but the food's both greasy and good, so no complaints.

The girls have obviously decided you're interesting and are trying to come up with a good way to find out why you live off campus. They're not the best interrogators in the world, though, and you end up learning that Crystal lives on campus—albeit in a private room—before Savannah finally gets around to asking you directly.

Wiping your mouth on a napkin you slump your shoulders a bit and do the same thousand-yard stare that you affected back when Derek asked last week. "It was my parents'."

Sierra is the first to figure out what that means, choking back a soft 'Oh!' of surprise and reaching out to pat your hand awkwardly. Karen seems to get it next and whispers to the rest of the girls who were looking a bit confused.

You shake yourself as if coming out of it and simply say, "Anyhow, I ended up missing last year, I'll be turning twenty this year. So, y'know, I'm an old man compared to you whippersnappers."

A roll of nervous laughs goes around until you ask Soon-Yi how her arm is.

"It still hurts obviously, but no fever," she glares at Karen who smirks back, "because someone makes me check it every ten seconds. I got in touch with a girl I went to that graduated from Arcadia before me, she's a nurse now. I told her a story about broken glass and falling, made it sound like someone was drinking and did something stupid and I fell and stabbed myself. I said it happened a while back, she seems okay with getting some supplies and treating me."

"Good, so you'll do that this weekend?"

Soon smiles as she shakes her head. "Nah, and Haeun'd be working this weekend anyhow. My bio class was back in that area that the Merchants hit, there's still police tape and people crawling all over the place. They've cancelled science classes this week until they find enough space to put everyone. I'm going over tomorrow on her day off."

After finishing up you escort the girls back to the dorm even though they keep telling you you don't have to. The nearest bus stop to campus from the Boardwalk is still a pretty decent hike and during it the girls seem to trade off on walking next to you and rubbing shoulders.

Back in their rooms and another set of head massages and cheering charms later you head out and pop back to your lair. The remainder of the afternoon is spent going over your books and using reinforcing spells to make everything as impenetrable as possible. By the time you head home in the evening, you're sure that short of Leviathan actually body-checking the building nothing's breaking the windows and walls.

AN:

**You've done a cape-like thing by invading the stash house. Sunday night in your sleep you have vivid dreams leaving you with memories of a new bit of magic. What is it?**

[X][Bonus] Medical knowledge equivalent to a fully-trained medi-wizard.


	13. Week 2 (Jan 24-28)Date night

Your sleep Sunday night was busy. While you wake up feeling rested you simultaneously feel like you've spent ten years studying for your medi-wizard boards and doing rounds. You find yourself flicking your wand and doing a self-diagnostic almost without thinking and rolling your eyes when everything comes back clean. Well, mostly clean, you're mildly dehydrated, which looking back on how much you do versus your occasional breaks for food and drink really isn't that surprising.

One of the first things that occurs to you when considering all the medical information that just got dumped into your head is that you could fix Soon-Yi up, no sweat. A bit of thought while you shower and you figure that while you could certainly heal Soon-Yi's gunshot now it'd be super, super suspicious on a number of levels. You'll just have to be content with her getting it patched up and making sure it doesn't scar afterwards. You could come up with some 'magic hands' massaging it with vitamin-E lotion bullshit that could disguise it.

_Anyway,_ you throw Soon a text offering to escort her to her meetup and head out to grab breakfast (and lots of water) before your math class. The rest of the morning is pretty chill, and you find yourself flicking through the news on your phone in programming when Crystal sits down next to you. You offer her a smile and she leans over. "So, did you get to see any of the Merchant raid on Friday?"

"I was at the party across the street from where they crashed, actually," you comment mildly.

That gets her attention and her long blonde hair swishes behind her as she swings around and leans forward. "What? After we found out them coming on to campus we—I mean New Wave—helped round up a some of the guys that got away. I didn't see you in the crowd when we dropped them off." Her eyes flick over you like she expects you to still be bleeding or something.

"A girl from my history class was there and introduced me to all of her hall mates. One of them got winged by a bullet and me and another guy I met there got them out and back here." You make a dismissive little wave, "I read the postings about it, we were gone long before the time the grenades started getting tossed."

"Is she okay?"

You nod, "Yeah, the bullet was removed and she got patched up. She's supposed to be going to see another doctor or nurse or whatever to have it checked today or tomorrow."

Crystal picks up her phone and bobbles it before firmly placing it back on the desk. "I'm glad. You know you could have texted or called when the fight happened, right?"

[X][Crystal] "I'm pretty sure that _you, _not _Laserdream_, gave me your phone number.

You scrunch your face up. "Why would I do that? I'm pretty sure that _you_ and not _Laserdream_ gave me your phone number."

"Ah, well…" Crystal seems pleased but flicks her eyes away from you for a moment. "I appreciate it, and yeah, but seriously I am a cape too, so a heads up is fine."

You cross your arms and tilt your nose up at her. "I see how it is, you think I'm a trouble magnet. You're just using me to find new people to play laser tag with."

This time Crystal can't contain her snort and goes a brilliant scarlet, putting her head down on the desk and covering it with her arms. After a moment you hear a soft, "You're a jerk, James."

"I am a total jerk. But seriously, you'd only given me your number earlier in the day and I have no experiences with firefights." You lean on the desk and prop your chin in your palm. "So I was as cool and collected as you'd expect. Got the girls out and Thor helped me get them back to campus."

Embarrassment forgotten, Crystal sits up and cocks her head. "Thor?"

Until class starts you explain your run-in with Thor, god of archeology majors, getting some laughs along the way.

Monday night you start picking through the first compartment of your trunk to try and put together a coherent cape look. The suit's going to be a thing no matter what just for armor purposes, but you're kind of torn on what to wear over it if you wear anything at all. Honestly, it makes your ass look _good, _and everyone should get a chance to ogle you. Still, the last thing you want is to cause accidents because you're too sexy not to be a distraction, so you try on a couple of styles of capes, coats, and robes before narrowing it down to mostly duster-style longcoats. While you dismiss the tan colored ones out of hand, a plethora of other, darker colors are available. You also decide to skip leather for now, the look of leather against the scaled pattern of your suit just doesn't work. For the moment you pick a dark mid-calf duster and put the mask on your face.

After looking in a mirror and Jojo posing for a bit you decide a hat would probably look better—the large shoulders trailing up to just a mask makes you look like a silver pinhead. Unfortunately all you seem to find when looking are pointy wizard hats which don't mesh well with the rest of the look, so you pack up what you have so far and instead spend some time looking up spells to enchant low-light vision into the mask instead.

Your Mondays are a bit too busy to run off to stalk highschoolers, and it turned out that Soon's friend found Tuesday to be better for her anyhow, so you meet up with her after lunch and offer your arm as you head towards the bus stop. For some reason she actually stops and stares at you before blushing and slipping her arm through yours. You make it to the bus stop before you decide to ask her what her reaction was.

Soon-Yi colors again and turns away like she's hoping one of her friends would suddenly appear to take the heat off of her by distracting you. Finally she shuffles her feet and plays with the hem of her jacket before muttering, "Even my ex-boyfriend never offered me his arm, it was all arm-around-my-shoulder or grabbing my hand and pulling me somewhere. It's nice, very gentlemanly." She straightens up and looks you in the eye. "We can't do that when we get off the bus, though. There's enough ABB guys around that we'd attract attention." She mutters something in Korean and frowns, then takes your arm again, brightening when she does.

The bus arrives shortly after and Soon spends the ride cuddled into your side. You manage to get a wandless diagnostic going without her notice and realize she's still low on blood—and the medical knowledge that's knocking around your brain now tells you that it can take like six weeks to completely replenish a missing pint of blood. Soon hadn't lost quite that much but it'll still be a couple of weeks until she's completely recovered unless you find a way to slip her a blood replenishment potion. It's something to think on, at least. Once you arrive and get off the bus she maintains a bit of distance between you as you walk her to an apartment building that's maybe a mile from Winslow. She assures you that she'll get a ride from her friend back to campus, so you continue on to find the birthplace of the Queen of Escalation.

Winslow's just as ugly a shithole as you would expect. There's graffiti—both gang-related and not—all the way up to the roof, any plants that may have there for looks are dead, and some of the windows are broken and patched with plywood. Rotted plywood. There are kids just hanging around when you're sure classes are in session so you don't stay close by, and instead commandeer a bench near a bus stop and hit it with a light notice-me-not and yourself with a minor glamour to change your facial shape and hair and eye colors. The high schools seem to let out around 3, so you don't have too long to wait until you hear a bell ring and kids stream out as quickly as they can.

Normally it would be impossible to find a single dark-haired girl in the middle of a pack of highschoolers, but in the middle of the mass of the kids there's a gaggle lead by a redhead and a black girl who are giggling and pointing at Taylor as she tries to slip through the crowd. You get a fair bit captured on your phone, you'll have to try and get more film at a later time.

Ensconced in your hiding spell, you could probably hit Emma and Sophia with a low-powered jinx or two so long as they weren't super obvious—no belching slugs or dancing, but perhaps a gradual hair loss jinx or a hex that caused a song to get stuck in your head for days would be acceptable?

[X][Curse] Don't cast anything on the girls

Despite how easy it would be to pop the girls with a jinx you hold back; anything that bothers them would likely be treated as more fuel for their treatment of Taylor.

You do manage to get a feel of their minds so you could pick them out of a crowd later. A brief brush of legilimency on Sophia leaves you with a sense of her feelings—you don't know if it's the shard influence or not but she seems thrilled by the feeling of being better than everyone around her. And that's another issue, she's considering people as things, livestock, mewling weak masses that she can lord over. It's disgusting but fascinating, you'd love to do a deep dive into her head to see where her brand of crazy ends and the shard begins.

Dropping the spells you manage to cut line-of-sight between the duo and Taylor by walking in front of them and slowing down while checking your phone. Sophia breaks first, muttering something about 'work' and pulling Emma off in her wake.

You're relieved when Taylor's bus finally arrives and none of the Trio or their hangers-on follow her. Actually the bus is pretty empty, and you find a free seat a bit in front of her and sit with your back propped against the side of the bus so you can keep Skitter-in-waiting in your peripheral vision.

Taylor has sagged in on herself and while she's not crying she doesn't look far from it either. Her hair is lank along her back and when you catch a look at her face, the bags under her eyes are so large they almost look like black eyes. You take the time to feel her out in your mind sense, she's a blazing beacon in comparison to most people, you can only assume it's something to do with her connection to every bug in sight? After getting a feel for her mind you cast a much more detailed diagnostic spell than you've been using and it comes back with the information that there are lingering infections, lack of sleep, dehydration, high stress, healing wounds probably from the bugs in the locker, and she's a high squib.

A _squib?!_

Trying again with a slightly different spell you get the same returns, including the squibness. Before you suspect some kind of weird all-capes-are-squibs thing you target an older woman sitting at the front of the bus and get a similar squib return, if barely. Of the ten people on the bus with you, seven end up being some shade of squib. Maybe it's a weird function of this world or perhaps it's just subbing 'squib' for 'has a corona polentia'? You're worried that more invasive scanning spells would end up with visible effects, so this is yet again something you'd need to look in to some other time.

What you _can_ do, however, is hit Taylor with a couple of spells to boost her immune system and speed healing slightly for the next day or so. Once again more powerful help would be really obvious, but basics like that would work fine. You do so and wait until Taylor exits the bus before getting off a couple of blocks farther down and trailing her. You make sure to stay at least a block and a half away and make a note of the house she goes in to. Poking around the block gives a couple of places you could use to apparate to, but you don't know any bug wards, so it's possible that Skitter would be aware of any teleportation. An abandoned building three blocks away is a safer choice.

Wednesday evening you cut a piece of pipe in half lengthwise and enchant it with a medium-powered banisher. Sticking a hopper on top you start lobbing debris at yourself and practicing your blocking. You shield charm seems to hold pretty well against the bricks and rebar that's being shot at you and while your general conjuration isn't great the specific silver shield conjuration like Voldemort used is within your grasp. It doesn't last long, around ten to fifteen seconds, but erecting it and then banishing it like you're discount Captain America is pretty nice. Transfiguration of the floor into head-height walls works too, although it's not nearly as fast as you'd like. You're still a ways away from pulling the street up to block attacks reflexively.

The most interesting defensive charm you practice is actually the good old disarming charm. If you time it right you can hit something coming towards you and bounce it away or possibly reflect it completely. Your hand-eye coordination is good enough to hit things coming at you well enough, but direct reflexion isn't quite in the cards for now. There may be variants on this that work better for parrying things, but your Defense knowledge tells you that you should be able to use this on pretty much anything, energy beams included.

The rest of the week isn't quite as busy, as you use your non-class time to try and track down Shaggy. Unfortunately that like, turns out to be real hard, Scoob. The current divinations you know don't work on people, just objects so that's a bust. You do manage to find apparition spots near the other stash houses that you pulled from Randy's mind, as well as the few meeting spots that are currently being used as hangouts and drug dens. You notice extra cameras being added to some of the buildings and get better at finding good shadows to hide in. Some practice with disillusionment or research into whether notice-me-nots hide you from cameras would probably be a good idea.

You are able to mind read some of the muscle when they step outside to smoke or walk the premises in some cases. Your range seems to have gotten better, and you can guide what the person is thinking about to some extent without being super blatant. You don't find anything that pinpoints where Shaggy is, but some other names start cropping up that might be his lieutenants. One of them, Ricardo or 'Ricky', either heads a grow-op or handles incoming weed shipments. Amongst other appearances, he apparently comes around a warehouse out in the Trainyard to manage the drop-offs once a week or so. You might have actually seen him drive off as you were scoping the place out—if he keeps to a schedule he'll be back next Thursday.

Sia is another name that's come up and as much as the Merchants seem to be primarily drug dealers, it sounds like this Sia person either runs a whorehouse or acts as some kind of facilitator for escorts or something. That sounds like a job that would involve lots of information or little black books, but you have even less to go on, just a name.

One of the other things you _have_ discovered is a lead on what's either Squealer's workshop or a garage where they keep Tinkered up equipment. Oddly, it's down south in the Commercial District, and the best set of directions you were able to pull was 'west of the UPS warehouse, near the old concrete plant', which isn't super helpful since you've never been there.

After scoping out all of the locations that Randy had in his nasty little mind you get a fair amount of practice popping between them. You even manage to apparate while walking, and with a bit more practice figure out a trick to either keep the momentum on the other side or bleed it off to arrive stock still. You'll need to do a bit of research to see if the 'smoke teleport' trick that was in some of the movies is an actual thing here, because that may end up working better in a combat situation.

You finish off Friday by making a quick stop by a hardware store to find a diamond scribe. That helps when making glass lenses for your mask as with an enchant for improved hardness lets you mark the glass like butter. Unbreakable charms as well as low-light vision charms completes things for now. You're not quite able to cast an appropriately-sized bubblehead charm that will last when enchanted.

A second try at finding a hat has you settle on a fairly wide-brimmed stetson-ish one that meshes fairly well. You are a little afraid of looking a bit like a plague doctor, but without a beak it'll probably be okay. A look through that charms book you found last week about household charms for pureboods gives you a charm that keeps cloaks from tangling on legs, so casting it and stalking around the top floor of your warehouse while humming 'I'm too sexy' lets you know that tripping over your own coat won't be an issue. Maybe you're rocking the Harry Dresden look. Maybe you look like an idiot, you're not a fashionista. Honestly you look pretty intimidating, maybe you'll need something a little less dark if you decide to do healing. A light grey cloak, maybe?

It's only seven PM when you get a text from Crystal.

_C: Uh, hey. Vicky and her bf are taking Amy on a double date_

_C: And it turned into a thing, my brother's going_

_C: with a date_

_C: and I don't wanna show up without anyone_

_C: but totally as friends!_

_C: will you help me out?_

[X][Friday night] Go, dressed nicely, be a gentleman

C: will you help me out?

..and here I was hoping to go to another house party/firefight. :J

So, before I say yes :J

Vicky's not gonna try throwing down with me, is she?: J

C: ….

C: Her bf will keep her in line

I ain't sayin I don't believe you, but… :J

In any case, where're we meeting? :J

And what're we doing? :J

So that leaves you with the need to dress nicely. You end up with a pair of gray chinos and a white checkered shirt. With your peacoat on you look like you actually have an idea about fashion which honestly couldn't be farther from the truth. You pull some cash from the Merchant haul and _scourgify_ it before tucking it in your wallet, stash your backup wand and holster on your leg and make sure the holster on your arm is freshly notice-me-notted.

Popping over to campus you walk the short distance to Crystal's dorm and walk in. You're right on time when you rap on her door and she opens it pretty quickly. As soon as the door opens though you get a head-to-toe look over and the door is shut until all you can see is her face. "Not quite ready yet, one second!"

A couple of minutes later when she re-emerges you've been counting the times that people on the hall have 'surreptitiously' looked out to see who's standing outside of Laserdream's door. After meeting the latest person's eyes and sending them skittering back in their room Crystal throws the door open wearing a very nice green patterned tunic dress and leggings that's totally different than the more casual outfit she was wearing when she answered the door. Her hair is missing the red hairband that's her normal signature, instead in a messy bun on the top of her head with a few stray strands framing her face. You give her a smile and wait until she's locked her door before gesturing for her to proceed you towards the elevators.

"Sorry I, uh, lost track of time," she says, offering a weak smile.

"Not a problem, my evening is in your hands. So, I didn't bring my tiara, but am I getting princess carried there, or is there a saddle option?"

Spinning around to look at you she lifts off the floor and floats backwards. "We're taking my car."

"Does it fly?"

"No."

You heave a dramatic sigh and slump against the elevator wall as you drape an arm over your eyes. "This would never have happened if I didn't forget my crown."

One side of Crystal's mouth is turned up at you. "You said it was a tiara, not a crown. For a crown I'd be willing to try the carrying thing."

As you make your way outside you offer her your arm. "You parked in the big lot?"

"Yep."

"Cool. So anyway, the tiara is for me, not you."

"I don't get to say this when Vicky's around, but nah, I'm the princess here," Crystal smiles up at you. She's about to say something else when her phone dings and she releases your arm to dig it out of her purse. She reads the message she got, frowns and reads it again as you move your arm around her waist and keep guiding her. She starts typing back and transitions to floating again between one step and another. "Oh my god, Aunt Carol why are you like this!" She looks up from where you've stopped at the entrance to the parking lot and sets back down to lead you to her car. "So apparently they're already at a movie somewhere with my brother and his friend. We're supposed to meet up and chaperone because knowing Vicky she's going to want to go out and strut on the Boardwalk until after midnight." Digging through her purse she holds out a set of keys. "Can you drive? I need to see if Vicky or Amy can tell me which theater they're at. Hopefully they're paying attention to their phones."

You pluck the keys from her hand and open the passenger side door for her as she shoots you a grateful smile. Hopping in yourself you slide the seat back a bit and attempt to start the car up. It doesn't catch the first time and you turn just enough to catch Crystal out of the corner of your eye. "So, about carrying me…" You crank it a bit longer and it starts up the next time. "When's the last time you changed the battery?"

"Never?"

"Didja get the car when you turned sixteen?" You watch her nod as you shift the rearview mirror and look for the light switch. "And I bet you drive little short hops, no more than twenty minutes or so?"

There's a sigh in her voice. "You're trying to tell me I need a new battery, huh?"

"Probably, unless your powers are electrical and you want to try to recharge it yourself." You pull out your phone and flip to a navigation app, "Do you know where we're going yet?"

"I think it's the Crestmark, just start out towards the art gallery," she says. "And no, my dad though… No, you're never allowed to mention it to him. Can you change batteries?"

Pulling out and down the aisle, the spot's filled before you're out of sight. "Yeah, I know how. My shop rate's pretty cheap, and I'm weak to bribery."

Your small talk continues on the way to the theater and after the ever-irritating search for a parking spot. Crystal's easy to talk to and more than willing to engage you in both banter and trash talk. You end up playing air hockey while waiting the last half-hour for the movie to finish.

"So what do you want to wrangle the kids into doing next? Food?"

Crystal nods and puts a hand over her stomach. "God yes, I'm starving." She throws up a shield over her goal reflexively when you try to sneak a shot in.

You give her a pointed finger and a smirk when she covers her eyes, embarassed. "I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Do you do that when you play beer pong too?"

"I'd have to get invited to parties first," Crystal complains as you wander over to the theater where The Green Hornet is about to finish up. You propose a nearby restaurant and she makes a quick call and casually mentions her name to secure a spot.

Chuckling, you nudge her and then wrap an arm around her when she leans her head on your shoulder. "Are you not invited because people think you're going to start busting them for underage drinking? Are you the cops?"

You're saved from her piercing rejoinder as the movie lets out. It's immediately obvious where the group you're looking for is, as Victoria keeps floating up to look over the crowd and the minor tap of her aura against your senses lets you find them easily. Crystal flies up enough to get their attention and you all crowd in between a couple of planters to plan where to go next.

Dean leads with a handshake and manages to keep a pleasant smile even through Vicky's comment of "Oh, it's you." Dean's own mind presence is muted and seems… slippery perhaps. Nevertheless you can get a general handle on him and he seems calm so your false seeming appears to pass inspection.

Everyone else seems content to give little waves as Eric's 'friend' Alex and Amy's date Lucas are introduced. Alex seems pretty chill, but even without mind reading Amy is a wellspring of negative vibes standing next to the varsity jacket-wearing Lucas who keeps trying to slide arms over her shoulders or around her waist.

"So, Crystal said she's hungry and I am too, we're all doing dinner." Four mouths open, probably to start jockeying for where to go when you continue, "We have reservations at a tapas place about two blocks from here." The crestfallen looks on half of the group warms the cockles of your evil little heart.

You head towards the exit and hold the doors for everyone as Crystal takes over the head of the train. Eric's whining softly about his sister running the show, Vicky is muttering to Dean while floating along, and Amy seems to be both freezing to death in a light sweater thing and trying to edge away from her date. You pull your jacket off and hit yourself with a warming charm before draping the coat over her. You get a look from Lucas, but the temporary disruption of the emotional miasma she was putting out tells you that was the right decision.

You hold Crystal and Amy's seats out at the restaurant and get a brilliant smile from your date for the evening. Dean likewise is a gentleman with Vicky but Lucas is left standing and looking like a moron. If this is the general quality of guys Vicky picks to try and set Amy up with, you feel like Dean should have stepped in long before now and stopped her.

Conversation between the little sub-groups is super stilted at first until Crystal decides to sell you out to her cousin. "So I didn't know that the girl who got shot was in my English class. I got to talking with her and apparently you pulled a bullet out of her arm, which you completely glossed over when you mentioned it on Monday."

That gets a lot of attention and you end up explaining being at the party, the Merchants crashing down the street, Soon-Yi's wound, her reluctance to get it seen to correctly, and finally your impromptu surgery in her dorm. The description of pulling the bullet out with tweezers seems to put Eric and Alex off their patatas bravas, but Amy jumps in and starts giving you the third degree about where the bullet was and how you pulled it out. You're able to moderate your answers so that you don't sound like an actual mediwizard and take the time to push in to the bio-striker's mind a bit to get a sense of her.

It's—it's ugly. Victoria's aura is about as controlled as you've ever seen it thanks to constant pokes from her boyfriend and yet every little fluctuation sparks some feeling or another in Amy's mind. Positive emotions that don't involve her older sister seem muted, the awe and fear that Vicky inflicts are like explosions of fireworks against an otherwise bland tapestry of life. And through it all is a constant line of thought that involves Vicky throbbing in time with Glory Girl's aura. You can only assume Gallant only sees the barest bits of this or he would have either run screaming or done his best to get her help.

Still, you're not sure that you'd be able to help her, to say nothing of people who wouldn't be able to look in to her mind. You'd need to do some serious study to see if you have any books about using mind magics to—reverse indoctrination maybe? Perhaps a way to mute her emotions in memories having to do with Vicky? Also, something enchanted to protect against GG's aura would be required.

"You did okay for someone who had no idea what they were doing, and making sure she saw someone with real training later was the right thing." Amy finally admits grudgingly.

"High praise from someone who wouldn't need to worry about cleanliness, I guess. I'll keep your words of praise in mind the next time I do back alley surgery." You raise your eyebrows at the girl and are rewarded with the faintest glimmer of a smile, probably the biggest positive emotion that she's shown for anything other than the food all evening.

Vicky drags her sister off to the bathrooms shortly after and you take the time to speak with Crystal.

[X][Amy] Mention something about Amy's reaction to Vicky's aura.

After dinner Vicky browbeats Dean into taking her to the Boardwalk. You're supposed to be chaperoning, but Amy looks ready to gnaw off an arm rather than continue the date with Lucas.

[X][Boardwalk] Let Crystal handle it.


	14. Date night continued

Leaning over towards her, Crystal moves close enough that you can feel her body heat. "Is it her date, the company, or did she just have a bad day?"

"You mean Amy?"

"Yeah," you flick your eyes over to Dean, who's looking fairly serious while talking to Lucas. "I've seen more lifelike animation from Leet's video intros and more zest for life in painted dolls."

While you get a chuckle, you're also not surprised when the blonde blows out a huge sigh. "This date wasn't supposed to happen. Vicky and Dean suddenly got back together yesterday and Vicky roped her in to it. She was _supposed_ to be spending the weekend with me, relaxing."

At this point you'd dearly love to knock everyone out and lovingly and deeply mindfuck all of them to figure out their various issues. Including Eric and Alex, who have had their heads together whispering the entire dinner as if the rest of you didn't exist. "And Amy didn't stick up for herself?"

Crystal picks her head up and gives you a tired look. "Amy does whatever Vicky whines about sooner or later."

You don't have to fake an incredulous stare and the very real feeling probably attracts Dean's attention as well, because you see him turn your way out of the side of your eye. "Always?" She nods and you continue, "That sounds wrong as fuck. I'm pretty sure siblings are supposed to hate as much as they love each other."

A quick hit of Legilimency fills in some details—Crystal and Soon struck up a conversation on Tuesday, of which you were only a part. Amy was supposed to spend the weekend with Crystal and maybe the girls to decompress from her sister, and Carol was going to be talked-to by Photon Mom. Vicky derailed everything and Carol caved to her immediately. The only redeeming feature to the day so far in Crystal's mind is being able to flirt with you.

Pivoting to look at Dean who has turned towards the restrooms with a frown shows the girls coming back, the floating blonde smirking and Amy shooting you a frown. Both girls sit back down and proceed to ignore your existence, one smugly and one rather robotically. Lucas once again tries to put an arm over the back of Amy's chair but this time he gets an elbow for the trouble.

Dean and Crystal share a look that clearly says that Amy's date is over. As they work whatever magic they're doing to make that obvious to Lucas without causing a scene you flag down the server and get the check, leaving a hefty tip and joining the general shuffle outside. You're not sure how they straightened things out, but Lucas gets hefted under the shoulders by Vicky and she and Crystal leave to take him back to wherever cookie-cutter jocks come from while you're left with Dean, Amy, and two hormonal fifteen year olds.

Turning around in the little side-street you're in you immediately avert your eyes. "Alright, I guess we should find something to do rather than standing around with each other's _cocks_ in our hands." You hear Dean turn and choke out a noise, then a moment later Amy does the same. Giving it a second you turn back to see Eric and Alex blushing and trying to look nonchalant from where they were making out and groping each other in the back of the group.

With Vicky's absence Amy seems calmer and doesn't object when you settle your coat over her shoulders again. "How about a bookstore, there was one like four stores down?" you propose.

A round of shrugs from everyone other than Dean seals it. The sandy-haired boy seems to have taken on the role of interrogator as he starts asking you questions about how you know Crystal as you set out.

"Well, we've had classes together since last semester, but I didn't go out of my way to talk to anyone or make friends really. What kind of sparked a conversation was Vicky, actually."

Dean blinks a couple of times and the most amazing succession of looks flash over his face. "I can only guess," he says painfully neutrally.

You explain Vicky hovering like a blimp in the library and the later conversation in class. "Then she pulled out her aura and starting waving it around. While it was unpleasant I handled it until Crystal got her to sit down. Most of our talking has been in non Cape 101 classes since then. Vicky always seems to drag her away from where I sit."

The boy's face was a study in mortification by proxy. Even Amy looks fairly embarrassed. Eric though, laughs out loud. "Yeah, that's totally Vick. Holds grudges for years." Dean gives a fake cough and doesn't say anything as you all file into the store.

Amy seems fairly happy to wander off to the sci-fi/fantasy section and Alex trails Eric over to the magazines, so Dean apparently decides to continue what meagre conversation there was. You decide to look at Anglo-Saxon history books, because the stories that Thor told were pretty cool.

You decide to start talking first, no need to just lay back and think of England. "So who decided that Lucas was an acceptable date?"

To give him credit, Dean doesn't miss a beat, but you've seen similar fake smiles from spokespeople who have to talk about things they personally hate. "I don't really know him very well, he is one of a number of people who hangs around the table we all sit at for lunch. He always seemed fairly personable, I believe he dated one of Victoria's girl friends previously. They broke up recently but seemed to still be friends." Dean seems reluctant to discuss Amy, Vicky, or her date more with you, which to be honest is to his credit. You're a newcomer in their group, after all.

Dean wanders off to keep an eye on the horndogs and you pick out an interesting looking book and head to the front just ahead of Amy. After checking out you stick around and notice she's picking up the _Black Jewels_ anthology. She must read something in your face as she hurriedly tucks the books in a pocket as she comes up to you. "What?"

"My mother had those books, I came across them while going through her things."

The healer flushes and mutters, "Maybe you should've kept your nose out of her stuff."

Before you can respond Dean is by Amy's elbow. "All done? Let's—"

"So where's Eric and his handy friend?" you interject. When Dean starts looking uncomfortable you flick your eyes over to Amy and continue, "Someone should tell them it's time to go. Not it, by the way."

A moment later Amy echoes your 'not it' and the other boy blanches. As he walks off he clomps loudly, clearing his throat as he goes. The two of you share a moment of amusement, no matter how faint on Amy's part. Checking your phone you have a message from Crystal that they'll meet you at a coffee shop shortly.

By that point the missing three show up, Dean looking faintly embarrassed. You raise an eyebrow at the boy who shakes his head slightly, the tips of his ears turning red.

Trooping down a couple of stores to the coffee shop you find Vicky and Crystal sitting outside sipping drinks. Both girls have frowns on their faces and there's an exclusion zone of a couple of tables around them. It's easy to tell when they spot you, as Crystal meets your eyes and brightens while Vicky's shoulders hunch a bit. Even Dean seems less than enthused to step into Glory Girl's Bitch Zone, but finally does and talks to her quietly. Crystal steps up to you and takes your arm as Glory Girl's aura calms down and everyone gets sucked into the wake of Hurricane Vicky as she heads off to spend her boyfriend's money.

Still, there are serious issues going on with Victoria. It's obvious to anyone who looks for more than a second or two that she's forcing the cheerful look on her face and for some reason Dean's mere existence near her is causing issues—one moment she seems happy and is acting playful with him and the next just looking at him almost seems to bring her to tears. Still, she gets control of herself after a bit and pulls Crystal in to the clothes shopping a bit. You're amused that every chance she can, the older blonde slips off to spend most of her time leaning against you and soaking up your calm.

[X][Shopping] Use this opportunity to discreetly Legilmence the other capes while they're separated

[X][Shopping] Cast health diagnostics on them

**[X][Shopping] Do both (but don't Legilimence Dean)**

You actually hit Vicky with a diagnostic first. She spends so much time trying on clothes that you have to hit her when you have a chance. She's totally healthy, in a way that would be suspicious all on its own if she didn't have a biokinetic for a sister. She also seems to have no hair follicles on her legs or armpits and her back muscles are stronger than the rest of her core. Her cortisol levels are slightly high, you guess from stress. She is not a squib at all, and registers as totally non-magical.

Switching to legilimency the next time your eyes meet you wrap an arm around Crystal and let information flow as you skim it, just like you learned from Randy. You do your best to keep an eye out to see if anything you do is noticeable, but she never blinks.

Victoria is in many ways a generic teenage girl—she dislikes school (although she likes individual classes), totally thinks she knows everything, and really likes getting her way. She just happens to have superpowers and a will to use them. There's no way that could turn out badly.

Also, she messed around with Lucas the last time she and Dean broke up. Amy's date with him was one part honest—apparently he's an amazing kisser, and she thought her sister deserved some nice kisses—and one part bribery to not squeal to Dean. Unfortunately Crystal's involvement in taking him home kept her from using her aura to intimidate him into silence (or just straight up threaten violence.) She's afraid that Dean will find out and break up with her for good this time and desperately trying to come up with a way to keep her whole life (as she sees it) from crashing down.

You hit Amy next, the chubby sad raincloud that is the world's foremost healer doesn't even twitch when then magic of your spell washes over her.

Panacea may not be able to consciously use her abilities on herself, but something is being done. You can tell she smoked fairly recently by the residue in her lungs, which clears up slowly as you continue to monitor her. Outside of that she's in not great but not horrible shape—she's slightly overweight and doesn't get enough exercise, but has no major health issues. She is a squib.

A second look at her mind doesn't fill you with any more joy than the first. The spikes of emotion that occur when Vicky actually touches Amy are crazily strong but very mixed and last only for split seconds. The more you see the more you wonder if constant exposure to the vagaries of Vicky's aura has just broken her of really feeling emotions unless they are incredibly powerful. She could very well be happy and have no idea what happy feels like as it's drowned out by awe from Vicky's aura screaming at her from inches away. Again, more research would be needed to help her if you want to try doing anything at all.

Crystal is the easiest of the group to hit; you merely establish the mental connection as she walks towards you after trying on some clothes. It turns out that she really does like you and wants to give dating you a try, and is hoping that the resistance that you showed to Vicky's aura wasn't a fluke—she's never been able to keep a boyfriend for very long, and she's starting to suspect that it's partially Vicky's fault. Her last boyfriend lasted from when she started college until the very day he met Vicky in mid-December. She's been going over similar suspicious timings of previous boyfriends breaking up with her since her revelation last week.

You also get some details about Dean and Crystal's chat. Dean mentioned that your emotional responses were somewhat muted and slow, like he's seen in people with depression. Crystal mentioned you losing your parents, and that seems to have ended the discussion. Apparently your false seeming isn't quite perfect yet, but you don't seem to have made any huge missteps.

Once again you see Amy's hand in her cousin's health. While not as picture-perfect as Victoria she has also had some work done on her to firm and tighten. She is a squib.

Eric is also a squib, and also seems to have had some work done, as you see evidence of acne that no longer exists. Really though, finding evidence of Amy's work is almost impossible because of how her power works. There's no evidence to point to that tags it as artificial, and nothing shows up as spell-created, but some things just stick out as unusual.

Reading his mind doesn't add much to information about New Wave. He's almost totally focused on getting his dick wet and isn't picky as to how or who does it. Unfortunately you may have also awakened an exhibition fetish, as being caught earlier gave him such a thrill that he's already planning to fuck Alex on top of a roof by the Boardwalk as soon as can be arranged.

Alex is not a cape-they've been Eric's friend for quite a few years and when puberty hit they started to experiment together. Alex likes the aesthetic they have going, which is mainly 'I like dressing in things that are cute.' That Eric seems to go wild when Alex dresses up all cute is a bonus-they've been thinking about how damp the panties they're wearing are since they got caught in the alley. That's one of the reasons why they wanted to show off the dress for Eric, when you weren't looking they flipped up the skirt portion and let him know exactly how wet they are.

Alex doesn't really care too much about putting themselves into a box; like Eric they just kinda do what feels good, and don't care about labels so long as it gets their dick wet.

You finally get a chance to hit Dean with a diagnostic while he's paying for clothes. He's healthy, but instead of the the 'benign lumps' that you have been seeing in other capes' heads, his show genetic material that isn't his, which is different than in natural triggers. You can't tell what it is—it doesn't scan as remotely human—but it's your first marker that he is indeed a Cauldron cape, and the artificial trigger does something different than normal triggers. In addition you find minor mutations in finger and toe length that the diagnostic says aren't natural, as well as a handful of other changes that have no visible effect. Perhaps all cauldron vials induce some kind of mutation, case 53s being the ones that go to some extreme? To top it off, he is a squib.

At one point while Vicky has dragged her female relations off and Alex is showing off a dress to Eric—in sight of you and Dean, neither of you are stupid enough to let them out of your sight again—the two of you get to chatting again. "You've handled Vicky's moods better than most guys Crystal's dated."

Oh, it's _that_ conversation. You wonder how your false seeming has been holding up, you've been emulating a reaction to Vicky's aura swings as best you could without really feeling them and Dean hasn't seemed super suspicious, but maybe he's just waiting on dropping the hammer on you?

You give a gallic shrug. "I'm not gonna lie, it's unpleasant to get my emotions jerked around, but I've done a fair amount of meditation, had some therapy, that kind of thing. I know my own feelings and I can feel when they're messed with and fight back. It's not a perfect defense but it's alright." Dean has a contemplative frown on his lips but doesn't press further.

Even Vicky's willingness to spend someone else's money peters off after about an hour. Everyone walks back to the parking garage and shuffles to the cars. You find yourself chauffeuring Crystal and Amy back to campus. The cousins are talking in low voices in the back with you catching the occasional word here and there. Amy's mood when fully away from Vicky has bounced back some and you can feel actual emotions from her, both good and bad. You manage to find a parking spot all the way in the back and walk the girls to the dorm with Crystal once again holding your arm, and on the other side of you the dark-haired girl seems to at least tolerate your presence.

After arriving back at Crystal's dorm she sends Amy inside, but not before you snag your coat back from her. Shrugging it back on you turn and find Crystal close enough that you could share body heat. She looks up at you with a slightly pained smile. "I'm sorry that the first time we got together that you ended up dealing with… all of that, but thank you for being so cool about it."

You can't help but smile back. "I won't say 'no problem', but the parts where _we_ hung weren't the problem—they were the best."

Her smile switches from pained to blinding. "I'll have Amy with me tomorrow and Sunday morning, but we could do something Sunday at noon, maybe after noon? Oh, or the battery thing? Or both?"

You're about to bring your arms up to hug her and respond when she floats up a few inches to your height and slides forwards to give you a hesitant kiss. You

[X][Kiss] kiss back softly

You bring your arms up and cup her face, your hands warm against her cold cheeks. After a moment you pull back just the barest amount and then brush your lips against hers again, faces so close you can feel her smile against you. When she pulls back this time you open your eyes and see her floating, her body parallel to the ground and it makes you cock your head and smile back at her.

Crystal manages to keep her embarrassment from being too obvious, but does give a fake cough into her hand as she touches back down and slides up for a hug. "I'll text you tomorrow?"

"Sure, take your time and hang out with your cousin. I'll pencil in some time in my busy schedule for Sunday," you say as she slides her arms into your unbuttoned jacket and around your back.

You share another soft kiss before watching her walk into the dorm with a smile and wave over her shoulder.


	15. Saturday, Week 2 (Jan 29)

Saturday morning you take some time and cash to run out and grab some security cameras—both normal and infrared—and a monitor for them. You also pick up a socket set and some wrenches so you don't have to whip out a wand to fix Crystal's car.

Retreating to your apartment (because your lair doesn't have electricity), you set up the cameras to both focus on the same area and start practicing your Disillusionment Charm. It's more difficult that you'd think, with the majority of your early casts rendering you just barely translucent. While being a slime monster-looking motherfucker is cool, it doesn't help hide you very much.

Almost an hour later you manage to get the full chameleon-like effect going which masks your face from the regular camera, although a distortion is visible if you move slower than a bare crawl. Switching the monitor to the infrared camera has you show up, but as a human-shaped featureless blob which is not quite what you were hoping for.

You take a break to start setting up brewing stations and ingredient racks at your lair when your phone dings with a message. It's from Susan, and opening it shows a picture of the girls getting pedicures. Sarah is absent, but filling in her space are a shorter girl in a cap and sunglasses and over by Soon-Yi is Crystal, waving at the camera.

A second message comes in from Crystal, just text, telling you that 'S Klub' plus her and Amy are going to a girls-only party at Sarah's sorority that evening. While you're reading that more pictures start rolling in from each of the girls as they move off to get manicures and such.

The girls call themselves 'S Klub'? What the _fuuuuck._

Anyhow, while the pictures of the girls are nice you start noticing things in the background of all of the shots they send you. Apparently when away from her sister for more than a few minutes Amy isn't just Vickysexual, because even with the sunglasses it's obvious she's staring hard at Savannah, who has blonde curls and a rack that outdoes Victoria's. You can't fault her opinion—Savannah is attractive—but her panting lust is amusing, the girl has no chill.

Along with the pictures there's texts asking what you're up to,

[X][Pictures] Send back a nice posed shot of making yourself lunch

You can't exactly mention that you're working on setting up potions stations your lair and it is lunchtime, so you hop back to your apartment and start making yourself something to eat while texting back and forth with the group.

You roll up your sleeves, manage to conjure yourself an apron, and ensure that there's steam wafting from your skillet as you smile up at your phone. The picture you took looks decent, so you send it off into the group chat.

There's no response for long enough you worry that you accidentally had your dick hanging out or something before you're barraged with messages.

S: U COOK 2?

A: That looks good, what is it?

C: Uh, will there be leftovers tomorrow? ;)

S: Holy shit is that some grits!

K: Very nice, Mr. Magic Pans

S: LOL

S: lose the shirt!

S: Oh shit, look at those eyes….

Knowing so many girls with S names makes dealing with them hard. You get badgered into taking pictures of your food after plating it, more of you sitting in your chair…

By the time they're all done with their mani-pedis you've taken two dozen pictures, your hair is even more tousled, and you have private messages from each of the girls where they've sent you pictures of themselves in swimwear or tight clothes 'to be fair'. There are also demands for you to either cook for them on their little illegal hotplates or to host them over in your apartment for dinner one day. Your eyes flick around your very unfurnished apartment and the magical bookshelves and you manage to deflect any possibility of that happening this weekend. You also immediately move your library to your lair and throw additional furniture around so it doesn't look like minimalist paradise. Unfortunately now it kinda looks like an antique furniture store threw up all over the place but your options from the trunk are pretty limited. You do manage to find a bed frame and freshly-charmed mattress that doesn't overwhelm the space you've set aside for your bed.

You'd largely been ignoring your apartment other than as a place to shower and cook so using the threat of people at your place was a good impetus to actually make it look lived in.

You manage to arrange six normal potions brewing stations in the room you had set aside, as well as one larger station that will allow bulk brewing for the potions that are amenable to it. You manage to transfigure some of the scrap you keep around outside into fume hoods and tie that in to what existing ductwork that remains. Enchanted fans create enough suction that your test brew of Alihotsy Draught is successful. You have enough for a half-dozen bottles that you throw unbreakable charms on. They'll be useful as gas grenades with the charm dispelled.

After your successes with setting up a potions room you return to research on evading thermal cameras. It's not until you stop thinking 'camera' and starting thinking 'hunting' that you get somewhere—thermal cameras are a recent invention, but creatures that sense heat are not unheard of. A book of hunting charms gives you a spell that was used in hunting blinds to make it appear that your body temperature was that of the surrounding area. After trying it out there's a lag time when passing from one area of temperature to another, like outside to inside, but it seems to work fairly well otherwise.

A single spell that encompasses both of the charms would be helpful, but you don't really know how to hack complicated spells together like that, nor do you know enough Arithmancy to work on a new spell that would do both tasks. For now, however, it will do.

Once dusk starts to fall you suit up and pull out a broom. After disillusioning yourself you apparate to the southernmost stash house you know of and fly towards the commercial district. You find that as soon as you lift off everything just clicks and you're soaring about with no issues—it must be that ol' Potter flying ability. You can't help but take some time to swoop around and try some dives, an aileron roll or two, and a full barrel roll all of which feel as simple as walking. Still, after playing a bit you get back on task, buzzing smokestacks and speeding around.

Online searching found the UPS warehouse, but you're going to have to work manually from there. You manage to spot where the silos and mixer of the old concrete plant have fallen just before the sun completely disappears. From there you fly a spiral until you see a caravan of cars and trucks pull in to the back lot of what you think is a aluminum siding company—you've seen their ads on billboards. There are two large buildings, and while one is brightly lit and security patrolled, the other… isn't. It's not really visible from the road, lit only by the cast-off light of the other factory, but has junky cars parked all around. Setting down on the roof of an abandoned building not too far away you cast a supersensory charm and make out a couple of scruffy-looking guys pulling up in a truck with the lights off and ducking under a partially-opened rolling door.

Once again you make a temporary wardstone and hunker down. Trying your scrying spells you search for variations of 'security cameras within one-hundred meters' and get a number of returns on the supposedly unused building. It looks like they're monitoring the roof as well as every entrance you can see from your perch. They are _not_ looking at the windows that are high up on the walls to let light in. There are some that are either open or broken so you could fly right in.

As you're considering which window is easiest to get through you pull out your phone to check the time. You're no fool, you had silenced it completely long before you actually apparated to the area, but you find a bunch of missed messages and pictures from all of your girls. Nothing crazy—there aren't any firefights—but lots of pictures of the girls mingling with other girls at the party, a video of Amy dancing sandwiched in between Savannah and a random busty blonde in a greek letter T-shirt, Sarah getting a lap dance from a male stripper… huh, okay, maybe the party was a _little _crazy.

In any case, you have multiple invites—including from Crystal—to show up and get let in to the party. Apparently it's not as girls-only as they made it sound earlier in the day. You look at the factory that's probably a Merchant storage depot and back down at video of eight dancing, laughing women. You…

[X][Factory] Let them know you're on your way and leave immediately


	16. The Party and the Afterparty (remix)

You look back at your phone with a wry twist of your lips. Sending a message that 'I'm not on campus, so give me a little bit before I can get there, okay?' gets a wave of electronic cheers and a private message from Sarah.

S: hey so im sponsoring you

S: cuz its only supozed to be bfs

S: just pretend ur my bf

S: dont freak when I kiss u

Well, that's… interesting? You dismiss your questions about it and pull out your best disposable wardstone. It will likely last for a week so you find a nice place to hide it and disapparate to your lair. You take the time to cash both a notice-me-not and disillusionment on your wand holster and decide to leave your trunk at home so it doesn't get stolen from your coat. Once you divest yourself of your outfit and store it, pop to your apartment and shower and get on campus it's only taken you a half hour.

Sending Sarah a text as you walk up to the house you're directed to the back where she's waiting for you. She's wearing a sorority shirt that's covered in scribbles in marker but you can't read any of it as Sarah launches herself at you and hugs you. You're also not caught too off guard when she tilts her head up and puckers her lips, giving her a firm but brief peck.

Once inside you're stopped by another girl—one of the officers—and you're told that any bad behavior on your part reflects on both Sarah and her big Chloe, then a 'S' is written on to both of your hands in green—'because of his eyes'. After that Sarah takes your hand and leads you off to join up with the other girls.

Everyone is dancing and you're dragged in and surrounded like a wildebeest surrounded by a pride of lionesses. Even if you didn't possess a decent sense of rhythm the girls are pressing their bodies so close to you that there's no missing the beat. All of you writhe together on the dance floor, the girls swapping places around you until perhaps ten minutes later you all move off to get drinks and find somewhere you can talk without yelling.

As you move out of the room you see that you're one of perhaps half a dozen guys sprinkled throughout. After you get a couple of walls between you and the speakers conversation is once again possible.

Sarah gathers everyone in a huddle and stands in the middle. "So normally boyfriends are the only guys allowed in these parties—"

"Except for the strippers?" you interject.

"—yes, except them." She reaches out and runs a finger down your chest and hooks it in the waistband of your jeans. "Don't be jealous, baby. Anyhow, I've claimed James as my boyfriend but it's okay, I'm totally willing to share him with you! Now let's grab drinks before we go back to dancing!"

You throw Crystal a look, but she must have already been informed as she smirks back. That's good, you had hoped the couple of kisses you shared wouldn't come back to bite you later if she made a fuss. She turns to talk to someone and you realize that it's Amy. The girls must have done some work on her, she has makeup covering her freckles, her hair has been straitened into a bob and dyed a lighter color and she's wearing glasses. It changes her look up enough that she probably hasn't been recognized. The two of them make their way over to you and Crystal nudges her cousin forward. Amy meets your eyes and freezes like a scared mouse for a moment before sucking in a huge breath and staring down at your shoes.

"Hey, I was a little stressed yesterday. I didn't really mean to make that comment about your mother…"

It takes a moment to remember the comment she had made at the bookstore. You flick your eyes over to Crystal who's palming her face and back to Amy before she peeks up at you. "You didn't seem to be enjoying yourself last night, I understand being somewhat out of it. It's fine."

"Ah good. Cool. Um.. Do you mind if I— I mean can I ah… wear your coat again?"

Blinking at the non-sequitur you shrug, agree, and shuck your coat off and swirl it around the younger girl's shoulders. She gives you an actual (if tiny) smile and turns and rushes off to catch up to Savannah. You turn back to Crystal and watch amused as her attention goes from your lips to your forearms as you roll up your sleeves. "Do I want to know?"

Crystal shakes her head, "She said something about the comment in the bookstore. When I mentioned what you probably meant she kinda freaked out. Honestly that's a lot better than she would normally be. She's calmed down _so much_ from how wired and bitchy she normally is."

"I hope it continues since she's going back tomorrow, right?" At her nod you continue, "So you didn't look surprised when Sarah mentioned the boyfriend thing?"

"Yeah, she explained way ahead of time so there wasn't a riot." Crystal laughs and moves in to your personal space for a moment. "It's alright for tonight, we've gone on one not-quite-a-date so I can't really stake a claim. Yet." Moving back she looks over at the other girls and continues, "And honestly without you here I'd just be dancing with the other girls. Which is fine, but I have my preferences." She smiles at you and tosses her hair over her shoulder. "If you wanna make it up to me you could cook me lunch tomorrow."

You chuckle, "Fix your car then fix you lunch? I can do that."

Crystal sashays away to get a drink as Susan comes back and hands you a cup. You're about to take a drink when the smell of alcohol hits your nose. Taking a much smaller sip makes you think you just got served a glass of paint thinner and your incredulous look makes the bushy-haired brunette giggle.

"That's the jungle juice. We've been cutting it with soda but you need to catch up to us."

Taking another sip you feel it burn down your throat, more like battery acid than whisky and give both Susan and the cup a skeptical look. "I think I'd rather drink lighter fluid, it probably goes down smoother." You manage an alcohol-neutralizing charm and take another sip that just tastes like cheap Kool-Aid. "So how far behind am I?"

Susan hums while twisting her hair up into a bun. "Like three cups?"

You hit her with a diagnostic and her blood alcohol level is enough for her to be pretty damn tipsy heading on towards full drunk. "Goddamn woman, time to slow down." You hit a couple of the other girls with diagnostics and get roughly the same result. "Hell, _all_ of you need to slow down. I'll do the magic hands thing without you being drunk, you know."

Everyone filters back and you head over to a different room where there are fewer dancers and a bit more space. Instead of the press of bodies the girls form up around you while they each take turns dancing with you. Sarah runs her hands under your shirt on her turn, while Sierra steps right into you, reaches around to take your hands and plants them right on her ass and proceeds to grind herself against you until you're afraid you'll both catch on fire from the friction. Susan fucking _nibbles_ at your chest and just blinks up at you innocently, while Karen and Soon-Yi just dance close and run their hands along your arms and chest. You're pretty sure Crystal cheated and was flying slightly as she backed her ass against your hips and stayed there like she was glued as you danced.

The most amusing dance is with Savannah, because she drags an almost hyperventilating Amy with her, spins the shorter girl around so they're chest to chest and marches Amy backwards until she's firmly pressed against you. When you smile over the healer's head and put your hands on Amy's hips the blonde southerner shoots you a wicked look, puts her hands on yours and the two of you proceed to use Amy's shocked body as a dancing pole. After the dance when Amy goes skittering off to hide by Crystal, Savanna gives you a smile that is all innocence as she grabs a double-handful of your ass before shooting you an air kiss as she walks away.

You're not sure exactly how long you've been dancing before the drinks finally start catching up to the girls. You and Sarah go around and talk to a couple of the women in charge before making sure that everyone is gathered up and start heading towards the dorms. Crystal and Amy peel off first, with the older shooting you a look and a bit lip that has you looking forward to tomorrow as she disappears into her dorm hall.

The girls sneak you into their hall in a similar manner as last weekend but you're guided to Susan and Sarah's room while the rest disperse to their own beds. Susan claims a hug and a kiss on the cheek before hopping up to the top bunk whereupon Sarah all but bull rushes you into bed.

The click from the lights turning off hasn't even finished sounding before Sarah's slim body is on top of you and you're kissing. Her tongue invades your mouth before you retaliate by sliding your hand up the back of her neck and casting the softest cheering charm you can manage. A soft, shuddery moan escapes her as her head tilts back and you move to start kissing down her neck.

Again, Sarah leaps ahead and slides off of you, using her increased access to your body to slip her hand right under the waistband of your underwear, grabbing your cock and trying to flip it out. When she encounters problems freeing your length she leans over you with a whine to use both hands and works you free after a few moments of trouble. Once you're free she wraps a hand around you—or tries to—and freezes before audibly gulping. "Susan?"

A light turns on above you and a mass of brunette hair hangs over the side of the bed. "Wha—holy shit!" There's some scrambling before Susan is in between your legs with her hand completing her roommate's attempt at encircling your cock. The girls share a wordless conversation with their eyes while running their hands all over your dick. At one point Susan straddles your hips and holds you against her body to judge your size before giggling nervously and moving away.

Taking matters into your own hands you slide your hand up Sarah's leg and finding that she had skipped panties entirely. Switching your grip to her hips you pull her back on top of you and nuzzle your face into her pussy before starting to lap gently. The girl's soft cry of 'Oh _fuck' _is muffled as her thighs tense around you.

It seems to take a moment for them to come out of their stupor but you feel first one and then a second tongue start lapping at your cock. The roommates seem to find a rhythm pretty quickly with Sarah moving up to take your cockhead into her mouth while Susan presses fevered kisses and licks down the full length of your shaft until she reaches your balls.

You may not be a parseltongue but you don't need to be as your tongue dips down to flick over Sarah's clit and you work a finger inside her. Her mouth pops off your cock as she whines your name, blindly scrabbling behind her with her arm to try and hold you closer to her slit. Removing your fingers from her long enough to swat her ass gets her back on track and she manages to get perhaps another inch of your meat into the hot confines of her mouth. Rubbing your other hand all the way up from her tight little ass all the way to her back of her head you hit her with another cheering charm and she jerks, her cunt gushing as she comes while you lap up her juices.

Sarah's head rolls over to your thigh and she goes limp after that orgasm while Susan seizes the opportunity to take control of your cock fully, taking you almost into her throat and stroking the remainder of your length with both of her small hands. She looks up while taking one hand off of you to push her glasses further up her nose and meets your eyes. Forcing herself down, you feel the tip of your cock start to push into her throat before her eyes water and she has to pull back. She's about to try again when Sarah rouses herself and manhandles all of you out of the remainder of your clothes.

After you're all naked the girls switch places and you manage to find a second to cast the contraception charm on yourself. Susan is off to the side staring as her half-Chinese roommate slowly lowers herself onto your cock. One of your hands is busy running your fingers between the brunette's lower lips as the other cups Sarah's hip. Both girls are panting as they watch inch after inch disappear and reappear as Sarah slowly rocks down and back up your shaft. When her hips finally rest against yours she gives a shaky sigh and lays her hand on her belly like she was expecting a bulge. Gently rocking your hips has her give a startled moan and she grabs on to the bunk above you for support before picking up your rhythm.

You urge Susan up to straddle your face and immediately plunge your tongue as deep as you can reach. In the soft light of the room the brunette's eyes snap to you and she runs both hands through your messy hair. In response your hands knead her ass and pull her closer as your nose rubs through her damp curls.

The short girl must be on a hair trigger as she cums as soon as you manage to swipe your tongue over her clit. She shudders and moans your name as you manage to work an arm up so you can flick and twist her nipples gently. She barely manages to snatch a shirt from the bed to muffle her shrieks when she stiffens and gushes in your mouth.

Susan cums so easily and quickly that you reduce her to a sweaty mess in short order and she collapses off of you leaving Sarah still grinding away. Reaching up you hook a hand behind her neck and bring her down into a fierce kiss.

Rolling over you pull back long enough to look into her dark brown eyes and pull your cock back until the head just rests inside her. She curls her legs over your hips and tries to pull herself up onto your cock. "James, _please,_" she mewls.

You slide into her slowly and she throws her head back and lets out a full-throated moan. When you sheathe yourself fully she throws her head back and arches off the bed. "Fuck, yes, harder!" This time you pull out and slam into her harder wringing pleased cries from her throat as your pistoning length as you fill her again and again.

Susan rouses herself and curls up next to her roommate's head as she watches you drive Sarah crazy. "God, he's so _deep_ in you." She reaches out and brushes hair away from Sarah's face. "Are you gonna let him cum inside you?"

At the question Sarah's cunt grips you even tighter. "Shit yes," she looks at you, eyes wild. "Do it, I'm on the pill, just cum for me."

You run a thumb over the girl's clit as your thrusts shorten and you feel the pressure build inside you. "I'm cum—"

Two hands pull you down into a messy three-way kiss as Sarah's channel spasms and you unload as you hilt yourself inside her with one last forceful thrust. You fill her to the brim as you gasp into the girls' lips before pulling out and collapsing to the bed between them.

There are a few more kisses as the three of you do your best to find a comfortable position on the small dorm bed but finally all three of you cuddle together and fall into sleep.

AN: So, you had sex for the first time in this reality! You get to pick from one of the two theme-appropriate bonuses below in addition to planning out Sunday.

[X][Sex Magic] You lean how to channel magic on the surface of your skin to increase stimulation.


	17. Sunday Jan 30

For the second weekend in a row you wake up in a girl's dorm. This time though, your bedmates are naked. And you're laying in the wet spot.

At some point during the night Sarah has rolled away and is laying back-to-back against you, while Susan is cuddled up right in front of you looking directly into your eyes with a dainty hand stroking your cock. You don't have time to do more than blink at her a few times before you're gently tugged off the bed cock-first. As soon as you're stable on your feet the shorter girl almost climbs you like a tree to get right in your face.

"I have… a problem."

It is _way_ too early for this shit. You push into her mind and find she's not actually mad and is honestly pretty turned on by what happened last night and decide to roll with whatever she's trying to spring on you. "That's horrible, you should do something about it." Your voice is a little hoarse but that just helps the dryness of your tone.

Wiggling until she slips off of your hands and back to the floor she prods you to a suspiciously positioned chair then grabs a pillow pre-positioned in arm's length and kneels between your legs. You like the _idea_ of where this is going, but you're a bit confused on the _why._

It honestly looks like she's about to dive face-first into your cock when your finger on her forehead stops her. "Your problem is my dick?"

The long-suffering look she gives you is honestly pretty amusing. "My problem is that you got me off like a hundred times last night and I didn't get you off at all."

You have to change from a finger to the palm of your hand because of how hard she's leaning in. "You don't keep_ score_ in bed, there's no tit-for-tat going on here." Peeking in a bit further into her thoughts tells you that she has a bit of an oral fetish and really wants to blow you but doesn't want to just come out and _say_ it. You give her your kindest, most gentle smile, "There's no rea-"

Susan growls—actually _growls—_at you. "James, _shut up_ and let me _suck your dick._" Cheeks burning, she slaps your hand aside and takes you to the entrance of her throat without batting an eye. Pulling back she runs one hand down your length while the other hand's nails tickle feather-light over your balls before she starts to slide down again. A handful of slow repetitions pass before you're once again as deep as she can take you. A deep breath through her nose and she opens her eyes to look directly into yours before swallowing as you pop into the burning wet heat of her throat. Holding for a second she pulls back and gasps, never dropping eye contact even with tears pricking the corners of her honey-colored eyes.

"F-fuck," you pant as she dives back down, sliding into her throat just a little easier as she focuses on closing the distance to the base of your cock with each stroke. You cup the back of her head and almost hit her with a cheering charm before you remember how violently Sarah reacted last night. Trying for something less powerful you try pushing just a little bit of magic to your fingers, like when you've tried to cast wandlessly. Trying to concentrate is almost impossible with the wonderful feelings Susan is causing but you manage to cobble something together right as the bushy-haired brunette pulls back to breathe again.

Wrapping both hands around you Susan takes just the head of your cock in her mouth and lashes her tongue around it wildly. Focusing on your magic touch you run your fingers through her hair and her eyes go half-lidded. This time instead of struggling to deepthroat your cock she makes it in three smooth gulps and manages to look up at you triumphantly before her eyes glaze over and she works just a few inches back and forth. Desperately trying not to cum you reach down and tweak a nipple, magic still in your hands, and a deep groan flows up from her throat into your cock and you know you've lost. "Susie—!" you cry, the girl kissing the base of your shaft and swallowing hard as you fire thick ropes into her throat and mouth as she drags herself off of you. "Holy fuck."

You pull Susan up into your lap and run your hands over her body as she catches her breath, but she stops you before you can dip in between her thighs. "Noooo," she pants, resting her forehead against your lips, "If I let you do that we won't stop and people are going to start knocking soon." She pulls you down a bit and whispers in your ear, "But I wouldn't mind a second helping sometime."

When the two of you finally pull back you see Sarah awake and watching with wide eyes. "How in the hell did you _do_ that?!" she exclaims, "where did it fit?"

Susan giggles a little while she wipes her cheeks and the corners of her eyes. "How did it fit in you last night?"

"I don't know if it did, I'm sore as fuck," the asian girl mutters as she slowly scoots to the edge of the bed. "I need some magic hands."

As Susan opens her mouth to reply there's a knock on the door and the girls share a startled glance at the clock. There's a sudden scramble to locate clothes and you're able to hit Sarah with a mild painkiller without her noticing. Your underwear are tossed at your face and your pants land in a pile at your feet as you're hustled half-dressed towards the door.

There's a bunch of bullshit being peddled as you're almost thrown out of the room while the girls 'finish getting ready' so you end up being pulled in to Sierra and Savannah's room and laying on hands there. As everyone finally heads out to breakfast you have a sneaking suspicion that the roommates' not-so-subtle attempt to keep everyone from noticing anything weird in their room is completely offset by the smug smile that Sarah is wearing whenever she isn't wincing and the lip-licking that Susan is trying to tease you with.

You finally manage to escape and arrive back to your apartment right as Crystal texts you. She's having breakfast with her mother and Amy, so any getting together gets pushed off to the early afternoon. Also, Amy still had your coat apparently. You had wondered if Savannah had stolen it.

Now that you have time you head over to your lair, pull out the trunk, and start doing some serious research into something that might protect from mind control (or is it emotion control?) like Glory Girl's, and some way to seal a secret, because at some point someone's going to catch you using magic and it's best to get ahead of it.

Having two things to research actually helps, giving you a chance to switch tracks when you get frustrated. After almost four hours of research you've found some useful leads in both areas.

As you first considered, Vicky's aura seems a little less like mind control and a little more like emotion control, cycling between awe and fear. Following that logic you were able to track down a spell that supposedly provides resistance to spells and magical creatures that effect emotions, as well as things like veela aura. It's careful to claim that it's not _complete_ proof against it, but some self-experimentation with using it and then casting cheering charms and various jinxes to try and affect your mental state seems like it does work, if not perfectly. Enchanting an item with it at your current level of skill would make it less effective than a cast charm, but something is better than nothing, right?

Unfortunately the other options you have are… complicated. You find some notes that makes it seem like Occlumentic barriers could be erected in another's mind—only a shield type—which could then be tended by the target if they had some Occlumency skill, or would need to be maintained in the case of untrained people. It appears that this option was mostly used on younger children before they had training in the mind arts. You can envision the steps of shielding another mind, but you have no idea if it would work in this case. The magical rules you seem to be working off of tells you that unlike canon, squibs could sometimes use magical items and in a few rare cases may be able to do something resembling Occlumency, so emplacing a shield and teaching her to maintain it _may_ be possible. You could also totally fuck up Amy's mind even worse than it already is.

The other options seem equally useful, but are beyond your abilities at the moment. You find records of runes which could be carved into an item or made into tattoos which apparently create an artificial mental barrier that is similar to Occlumency. Unfortunately your current dabblings in Runes are way, way to poor to even attempt the idea. You lack a ready-made rune string that you could copy, and any such construction would need additional personalization that your runic skill just doesn't support anyhow.

Another option would be to construct a ritual to fix the issue. Either a ritual that creates mental barriers, or one that renders the recipient immune to outside mental tampering would work. Your problem in this case is that you know _nothing_ about ritual magic. Comments in other books seem to paint a picture that rituals are capable of anything and everything so long as they go right, and horrible screaming death if you screw up even the tiniest detail. Researching more would have you start at square one with ritual magic and you have no idea how long it would take to get to a level where you could even begin to formulate an idea on a ritual to accomplish what you wanted.

Secrecy magic, on the other hand, gives up _its_ secrets pretty easily. Since you're surrounded by squibs and muggles, you can ignore the Unbreakable Vow. That leaves a fair number of options which should work on anyone. A blood pact would work because of the use of blood—you find a record where it was used successfully on a muggle. Other secrecy charms also seem to work on muggles so long as blood is involved. Squibs seem to be affected no matter what, although blood as a reagent never seems to hurt when it comes to secrecy.

Contracts honestly seem to be the worst option, as they only seem to have penalty clauses and that's totally not helpful to enact a penalty after the fact, you want prevention of information spreading in the first place. Besides a blood pact, the _Subrosa_ charm could be cast on any number of people and allow secrets to be shared that could only be spoke about with the agreement of all others in the group. Trying to speak or write of the secret would cause a person 'to begin talking about the most inane thing they had heard in the last day'.

There are also a couple of secrecy charms that have been tailored for use on muggles, possibly from before Obliviation was perfected. You note them down, but they are apparently messy if not used correctly. That explanation isn't elaborated on, but sounds bad enough that you don't consider them good ideas to use on friendlies.

You leave your research out and pop back to your apartment to begin prepping lunch. Crystal shoots you a message not too long after you've gotten all of the _mise en place_ ready. You give her your address and head downstairs. She picks you up and you head to a nearby auto parts store, grab a battery, and end up back at your place in your never-used parking space.

Crystal seems content with watching you and making small talk, although she smirks when you point out that you're expecting your jacket—that she's wearing—back.

"I didn't think I was getting it back from Amy, honestly. I think she might have worn it to bed if I hadn't teased her about it." She rubs her hands over the lapels and leans against a pillar in the parking garage. "I mean it's hella comfortable, but kind of strange."

You finish pulling the old battery out and put the new one in. "Yeah, I'm surprised she asked after the frosty reception she gave me on Friday."

The blonde groans and huddles into your coat. "Ugh. She was in _such_ a better mood yesterday. I keep telling Vicky not to set her sister up on dates because Amy just doesn't seem interested but she does it anyway."

The swap is done in short order an after making sure everything starts up fine you lead her to your apartment. You are a _little_ worried that you've fucked something up and left obvious magical stuff sitting around, but other than a cursory glance, Crystal's attention seems to be focused on you. In fact, as you fire up the oven and stove and pull out everything you got ready ahead of time, you find her face over your shoulder as she asks about what you're cooking. It's pretty amusing (and kinda cute) to have her hovering around being inquisitive, something you've never seen her do in public.

After getting the chermoula ready and everything else in the oven you both sit on one of your new couches. Crystal sits against one arm, cross-legged facing you and you get a little worried as the smile falls off her face.

"So…. we need to talk."

Your everything tenses as one of the most worrisome sentences in the english language hits you.

"Um, it's nice that you made that 'you're Crystal, not Laserdream' comment the other day, but I _am_ kind of a public figure and all. Same with the rest of my family—like if anything Vicky and Amy have it worse—but you need to know that there were pictures taken of you on Friday and they've been posted on the internet." She wrings her hands together and doesn't meet your eyes. "No-one's like, named you or anything, but if we keep, uh, hanging out it's going to happen. You're going to get attention from crazy internet people."

Oh, it's _this_ conversation. The relaxation of tension in your shoulders feels heavenly. "I wondered about that. I figured that something might happen but I didn't expect the serious look on your face. If I was super bothered by it I would have said I needed to stay in and wash my hair or whatever." That finally gets a little smile out of her as you continue, "Is it going to be that bad?"

Flipping her hair forward over her shoulder she plays with the tips in between sneaking looks at you. "I mean the PHO thread for _me_ is on its like fourth reboot after becoming too long, but Amy and Vicky's are over twenty threads. Anytime someone shows up in public with me more than once you're going to get a nickname and at least a dozen posts trying to find out who you are. The fact that we were all out together means you're in their threads too—crap, I didn't check that…." she trails off and pulls out her phone, obviously reading things as she scrolls. "Well shit."

Your phone dings a moment later and you see that Crystal's sent you a number of links. Clicking on the first takes you to Vicky's PHO thread right where a poster starts ranting about how 'Our wonderful Glory Girl is back with that Dean Stansfield asshole'. Over the next couple of posts there are something over a hundred picture links as well as crossposts to Amy's and Crystal's threads where you discover you have apparently been dubbed 'green-eyes'. "Wait, Lucas the jock was named and shamed, and I'm just 'green-eyes?'"

Crystal slides up against you and pulls your phone arm over her shoulder to look. "Yeah, he got named because someone saw them going into the theater and then saw him trying to slide his arm around her shoulders. He's gonna get so much shit in school tomorrow." Flicking a finger she scrolls down farther, "You were green-eyes because they were super noticeable, but you became 'peacoat' for a while when Amy wore your jacket." She laughs at the look on your face. "Seriously, she's obsessed. I wonder if she'd be like that with your other clothes."

The timer goes off and she follows as you pull things out of the oven and start plating. "I thought women were supposed to steal hoodies, not jackets." You hand her a plate and you both sit at your kitchen table.

Taking a bite Crystal makes a small sound of surprise and pops more chickpeas in her mouth. "Do you have a hoodie I can borrow?"

"Trying to get me naked already, or staking a claim on something before Amy steals all my clothes?"

There's a twinkle in her eye even as she deflects the question. "Anyway, I'm serious about the public attention thing." She looks at her phone and points at it with her fork. "Yeah, someone posted that they saw us buy a battery for my car. There's speculation that I'm using you, that we're dating, and that we're secretly living together in like the next ten posts."

"What the fuck?"

"It's gonna be like that." Shy Crystal is back as she puts the fork down and wrings her hands again, and the playful mood is killed. "I understand if this is way too much to deal with."

Yeah, her _words_ might say she understands, but the tone of her voice tells you that plenty of guys have bailed out at this point. You tell her

[X][Crystal] Write-in

Putting your fork down you take a deep breath and ignore the way that the blonde tenses. "Honestly, I like you, and the media thing is weird but not a dealbreaker. I'd like to try an actual relationship." You meet her small smile with your own and hold up a hand, "However, since it's possible that this could come back to bite me in the ass if I don't mention it ahead of time, full disclosure—I hooked up with Sarah and Susan last night."

As she hears the words 'hooked up with Sarah' Crystal's eyes go curiously blank and she slowly laces her fingers together. When you add 'and Susan' she jerks and stares right at you. "You _what?_ Are—_Susan?_"

…that's the part that bothers her? "Yes?" You don't want to try and mind read her and get distracted, but boy you're gonna do it as soon as you have a chance. "Both of them, but you're surprised by Susan?"

"We hung out yesterday, but Sarah wasn't there for most of it—she was doing sorority stuff like making punch or hazing pledges or whatever so I didn't meet her until right before the party. Susan though, she kept the other girls in line, she didn't seem like the kind of person to just… do that."

At this point you try a bit of legilimency and Crystal seems irritated but not quite _angry_. Still, you feel like you're navigating a minefield. "I can't say I'm a gentleman since well," you gesture vaguely, "but I'm not kissing and telling any more than I already have."

The blonde cape's ire doesn't even seem directed at you. "I _knew_ she was going to do something! She kept making those boyfriend comments… argh!" Her hands come up and curl like she's not sure if she wants to strangle someone or punch them. "And _she—"_

You have both hands up now in a conciliatory gesture. Crystal seems… miffed? Miffed is a good word. She doesn't seem like she's going to explode into violence or anything, but _damn_. "I'm totally willing to promise it won't happen again."

"Just, just," she trails off into inarticulate noises for a second, snatches up her phone and starts pecking hard at it, then stands and heads for the door. "Just don't go anywhere, I'll be back."

"…It's my apartment, where would I go?" you ask the door.

The better part of a half-hour later a much calmer Crystal walks back through the door. You've already cleaned up your dirty dishes (manually, no need to get caught using magic) and have resorted to leaning against the kitchen counter browsing the PHO threads on New Wave. You look up as she shuts the door firmly and flies through the intervening space quickly to rest a hand against your chest and look you right in the eyes.

"Okay, look. I said that you could act like her boyfriend for the night and I hadn't staked a claim but I didn't think Sarah'd just jump in bed with you like that." She takes a breath and visibly slows herself down. "I've never done an open relationship, and I'm not going to start one like this. If we're dating, we're exclusive, okay?"

"Okay." You meet her eyes and push a legilimency connection but don't actually try to do anything yet.

She deflates and touches down on the floor before tucking her head under your chin. Crystal's tall enough that it's not super comfortable, but you wrap your arms around her loosely as she relaxes against you.

Taking the opportunity, you use the existing connection to peek into her head a bit. She had been talking to Susan out on the roof and _holy shit _Susan took pictures of your dick while you slept_._ And shared them with Crystal. _And_ gave a glowing review of both your cock and your skills in bed. Wow. Oh, and she took a video of her deepthroating you. _Super_!

The woman in your arms starts to pull back so you return your focus to the real world, specifically her pouty cupid's-bow lips that quirk a bit before she gives you a shaky grin. "I totally deserve a hoodie. Girlfriend privileges."

You nod. "Totally. However, you get to tell Amy 'no' when she asks about my jacket in the future."

This time your girlfriend's smile is a lot more genuine. "If it makes her happier like she's been the past couple of days I'd probably be willing to compensate you for it." She blushes a bit as that comment brings up her recent conversation with Susan. "I'm kind of done with heavy stuff for the day, but can we cuddle for a while?"

"We can use the couch; I wouldn't want you to think any worse of me for suggesting the bed," you smirk at her, and her blush returns just as it had started to fade, "wanna pick out a hoodie to steal first?"

Your hiding spot across from the factory wasn't swarming with stank druggies with guns, so you use it again to scope out what's going down outside. The cars scattered around are different than yesterday and all of the rolling doors are down, but nothing else looks different. Taking the time to ensure everything is secured and you're still disillusioned you focus on a window that seems to lack glass completely and throw yourself forward on the broom, crossing the distance in seconds. A quick peek inside and you roll in and find yourself on scaffolding right above an overhead crane.

You silence the rickety metal you're standing on and survey what you can see from your new vantage point. A number of guards are walking around in singles or pairs, and what looks like more sitting around and smoking near what you assume to be a security office, if all the monitors you see are correct. Well damn, when did the Merchants actually start caring about shit like this? You're amazed and kind of appalled, really.

The rest of the space is divided into vehicle storage with some very Mad Max-looking trucks, panel vans, and cars, and what is clearly Tinker space for Squealer. Flying closer you can see she isn't around, but one of the panel vans is over there to be fixed, as you watch the cloaking turn on and off randomly, occasionally marked by multicolored sparks shooting out and skittering across the floor. A second space has what looks like an exoskeleton partially-build, the legs and torso being held up on a frame and a couple types of arms just scattered around. It looks a little like a power armor frame from Fallout, and a bit like the power _loader_ from Aliens.

So in all this is kind of a bust—it doesn't look like anyone important is around, but this does look to be Squealer's main (or only?) Tinker workshop. You could…

[X][Merchants] Find a hiding spot, ward it, and use it to check back occasionally

You find a spot a little more towards the Tinker side up near the ceiling that isn't easily accessible from anywhere and pull out some wardstones you had made just for this possibility. You're not sure how often any of the new higher-ups might show up, but this was definitely a good chance to catch Squealer. Now what you'd _do_ with her—that you don't know.


	18. Week 3 (Jan 31-Feb 4)

You are not looking forward to telling Crystal you have powers. It's probably for the best—honestly you're surprised your notice-me-not on your wand holster has held up the few times you've been shirtless or naked, with a girlfriend you'd have your arms around on a regular basis you have no idea how long it'd work. Still, you're a bit apprehensive.

What you did look forward to was seeing Crystal walk into class with a Ravenclaw-blue hoodie and tuck her hair behind one ear while shooting you a little smile. When she sits next to you she leans over. "I hope you know you're never getting this back, it's too comfortable."

"I find the sacrifice acceptable," you intone gravely, then smile at her soft snort. "Are you up for dinner tonight?"

"Actually I have a team meeting/dinner thing on Mondays, most of the time at least. How about after Sociology? I'd have like an hour, hour and half to hang out."

You shoot her a look out of the corner of your eye. "Is Vicky going to release you from her clutches with me around?"

Crystal's smile dims a bit, then further when she thinks about it. "Ugh. She would, but we should probably leave separately and meet up afterwards unless you feel like dealing with her making a scene about it. I'll have to deal with her so it doesn't come up…" she trails off muttering imprecations about her cousin as class starts.

Your girlfriend does sit next to you in Cape 101, which leads to a grumbly Glory Girl sitting on her other side and shooting you occasional childish glowers. Once again as class ends Crystal is drug off and you apparate back to your apartment to wait for a text that comes a bit later.

C: God, I finally told her to go away, where are you?

I'm at my apartment. :J

C:…is this a joke? How?

Just come, door's open. :J

Even though she's in your hoodie and jeans, it's Laserdream who opens your door minutes later. A crimson bubble snaps over you as she kicks the door closed and keeps her back against the wall. "James…"

You hold up empty hands, still sitting at the kitchen table. "Y'know how you said you were done with heavy stuff 'for the day' yesterday? Well…." You manage a connection even through the shield. She's apprehensive, but it's tightly controlled.

"James."

"Crystal. Look, you're hardly an idiot, and I didn't want to hide it from you—I have powers as well."

The forcefield disappears and she walks over and pulls out a chair. "A mover then?"

"Well, yes. More of a grab-bag, I suppose."

After sitting your girlfriend keeps one hand pointed in your general direction while the other taps on the wood. "I'm going to associate bad news with this table, you know." She sighs, "Is this why Vicky's aura doesn't bother you?" She's hopeful, a burst of memories of guys breaking up with her after dealing with Vicky flashes through her head.

You nod. "I can tell she's using it, but… D'you remember when you and her were in the library a couple of weeks ago?" At her nod you continue, "It's the first time I was around her after I really developed the shield. I went from feeling it pretty normally to feeling like a small child was demanding my attention. Even now I can tell she's using her aura, but it's like getting a text that tells me 'Vicky is angry and would like you to be afraid.' I note it but don't feel it."

The two of you just look at each other for almost a minute before she finally points her hand away and shuts her eyes tight. "Please tell me you're not a villain."

"I am not a villain."

"And you're immune to Vicky?"

"I'm not immune to her fists, but I've been immune to her aura so far." That gets a little smile from her at last.

Her phone dings and she spends a moment responding before looking back up. "There's a posting of me flying off all fast and now Vicky's concerned. I should probably go to my team meeting early to calm her down, but we will be talking about this later. I won't pry too much, but is there anything you want to tell me?"

You can read in her thoughts that she also sent a text about possibly meeting a cape, so she's going to get grilled pretty hard and get a full check-over by Amy. It's their version of M/S protocols, you suppose.

You shrug. "I don't want to take up too much time and have Glory Girl start smashing up the joint, but my powers seem to be magic-themed. Like from fantasy novels, bippity-boppity-boo kind of stuff."

Crystal blinks slowly a couple of times and then pinches her nose. "Are you swishing around saying abracadabra?" She wiggles her fingers at you and you manage not to flinch. There's a fair amount of imported Potterverse memory in your head that makes that kinda cringy.

"Have you or Eric ever played any video games with wizards? Dungeons and Dragons? It's kinda like that. My powers are a theme, like flying Brutes are 'Alexandria Packages'. I just call myself a wizard rather than a cape," You shrug.

"Mmm… I'd like to see what you can do at some point, because now you have me curious. Anyhow, I hope you have a decent mask, because a long wizard beard would be really obvious and not actually hide the way you look." She reaches across the table and rubs at your chin. "Don't do the beard, you look good with just stubble."

You manage to channel your slight embarrassment into a cough before you speak. The twinkle in Crystal's eye at your reaction is nice to see. "_Anyway,_ I've found what I think is Squealer's workshop, or one of them at least. Lots of vehicles with bits bolted on, one of them was broken and kind of going part-invisible. She wasn't there but plenty of guards were so I just bugged out."

Crystal looks interested, but then checks her phone and sighs. "I gotta go, but are you sure you weren't seen?"

"I'm sure, I was like a ninja—in and out."

"You can't be both a ninja and a wizard James, you need to pick one or the other." She gets up and gives you a hug before stopping at the door. "Do you already have a name picked out?"

You nod, "Warlock. Didn't seem to be taken."

She points a finger at you, "You just picked it because it has 'war' in it, didn't you? You picked it because it sounds cool."

You point a finger right back. "Don't you be putting that crap on me, Laser_dreamy."_ You finish off by clasping your hands under your chin and fluttering your eyelashes.

Crystal shakes a fist at you comically and opens the door. "I'll text you later."

Later is apparently five minutes after she leaves.

C: I thought of calling you 'winja' as a wizard-ninja,

C: but that sounds way too cool for you

C: so you are hereby named

C: ninzard :)

:/ :J

I think I want my hoodie back. :J

Also don't text and fly :J

It's illegal, and I'm calling the cops:J

After Crystal leaves you really just want to work the residual stress of your reveal out. Rather than do research you just pop over to your lair and mask up, then head to that Trainyard warehouse you looked at a couple of weeks ago to blast some things. You're not so stressed as to not check the joint over for humans and throw up some basic wards before you start, though.

Unsurprisingly, blowing things the fuck up is really, really satisfying. While you probably wouldn't be able to write an essay on the differences between _confringo_ and _expluso_ you find you can at least aim both of them while on the move fairly well. They're probably not a great idea to use on people, at least not if you want them alive. What might work is the Reductor Curse. You'll need to do some testing with a live subject—perhaps a transfigured animal with something attached to it?—but from your initial attempts it seems to just destroy things without an explosion. That could work pretty well to target things like cars or guns. Maybe even Kaiser's armor, see if he wears a mask inside that tin can of his.

You also finally try out the _orbis_ jinx, albeit on a dummy human figure you manage to transfigure from scrap. It doesn't matter where the dummy is, the jinx seems to bury the figure in anything—dirt, concrete, rock, random rubble—with the depth varying between hip and shoulder height. Pretty useful to keep people from getting away, possibly more useful if you bury them deep enough they can't use their arms.

Without someone to practice against you really have no way of gauging how you would be doing against a human enemy. You do consider pulling out one of the guns you took from the Merchant raid and testing your shield against it, but it's late enough you don't want to try and get that set up tonight.

Back at the apartment you're getting ready to do your Occlumency when your phone dings.

C: So I've been told that you're not Mastering me.

Well, yeah. :J

C: However, I need another of your hoodies for testing.

C: To make sure it isn't tinker-derived mastering cloth

C: You won't get it back

And what color does Amy want? :J

C: lol, and she thought you'd believe me.

C: do you have hot pink?

[X][Hoodie] Sacrifice another hoodie to Amy

Tuesday brings history class, and you find yourself somewhat nonplussed that Sarah seems to treat you pretty much the same as before you tumbled into bed with her. Still, it's better than having a discussion about how you're now dating a local celebrity. Knowing Sarah, the discussion would be at volume in a public area, and you'd prefer easing in to the whole public figure thing.

Crystal had shot you a text about dinner and a movie at your place tomorrow, so you run out to grab some stuff to make, as well as a TV, since you don't have one. Supposedly you get free cable and internet as part of your rent so you may as well take advantage of it.

Wednesday after cape class Crystal is not dragged off by Vicky for once. Unfortunately, that's because GG sticks around and drags both of you to an empty classroom and proceeds to turn the full fury of her aura on you. Well, you guess it's not the _full_ fury, but nevertheless you immediately throw up your strongest shields and the 'small child demanding attention' feeling is more like 'full-blown toddler tantrum'. Looking over at your girlfriend her face is pained and angry as she steps in front of you and pokes Vicky in the chest repeatedly until the younger girl pulls her bitch field back in.

"What in the _fuck_ do you think you're doing, Vicky? We just told you _two days ago_ that you need to stop using your aura except on patrol, and the next time I see you you're trying to intimidate my boyfriend? _Go home_ Victoria."

Glory Girl looks startled to be spoken to like that, but frowns and almost rips the door off its hinges as she leaves. Crystal slumps and relaxes against you when you take a step forward to hug her.

"I'm sorry about her. Did her aura actually bother you at all?" Your girlfriend turns and floats up enough to rest her head on your shoulder.

You mention your personal mental classification of Vicky's aura and she laughs at the tantrum thing. After a moment she breaks the embrace and walks over to the corner of the room, pulling her phone out and dialing.

"Mom? Yeah, I win the bet, less than two days."

"I have no idea, she just pulled us into a room and started blasting pretty strongly, didn't say anything."

"I'm sure she _will_ claim something dumb but neither of us even had a chance to say anything."

"James and I are having dinner, actually. Mom… _Mom,_ honestly! And no, we haven't even been dating a week, you and Dad are just too much. Although… he and Dad might want to talk recipes…. Yeah, okay, love you too."

Turning back to where you were pointedly not paying attention your girlfriend walks back over. "I'm sure you heard, but my mom wants to meet you. If Vicky happens to remember your last name expect a very polite email from her inviting you over to 'meet the family' and 'use our washing machine' or 'enjoy a home-cooked meal' because she's sneaky like that."

"How insidious."

The eyeroll you get is expected. "I'll head back to my dorm to drop stuff off and meet you at your apartment in a bit?"

[X][Crystal] Apparate out in front of Crystal

Dinner goes well, you used a cooking charm to approximate a sous vide machine and made a lovely flank steak with hasselback potatoes.

[X][Magic] Use household magic around Crystal

You couldn't even begin to remember what the movie you're watching is, because Crystal is laying in between your legs and you're trading kisses while she explains the Unwritten Rules and a bit about…

[X][Info] The PRT/Protectorate

"Sure, you can show up whenever. And by the way, I have no problem with meeting your parents. We can do it this weekend if you want to get it over with."

You'd think you just told her you just stepped in dog shit. The look on her face is almost comically disgusted. "Really?"

"Better to get it over with now and maybe offset whatever Vicky says about me." You shrug, "Maybe your dad and I can bond over checking your car? Do you get regular oil changes?" The blank look she gives you answers your question better than anything she could say. "Anyhow, I'll head out now so I can get dinner prepped."

Crystal raises one eyebrow and tilts her head up ever-so-slightly. "Why do I get the feeling you're about to show off?"

"Cuz I'm totally about to show off."

Clapping her hands, your girlfriend hops up on a desk and leans forward, kicking her legs. "Alright, lemme see!"

You step forward and take her hand to kiss it. "I shall see you shortly," you declare grandly, then step back and apparate home. You're still in the process of putting your backpack down and taking your jacket off when your phone apparently reconnects to the network and rings. It's Crystal, so you pick it up. "Yeah?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—" she cuts off into a cough, "James? What the _fuck_ was that?"

Well, this wasn't the response you expected. "Teleportation?"

"Do you have _any_ idea what it looks like?" Wow, she sounds freaked out. "No, I'm sure you don't. Urgh. I'll be there in a bit."

When Crystal shows up about twenty minutes later she barely gets through the door before turning around and grabbing both of your hands and staring at them. "Crys—"

Suddenly she's floating up in your face with her hands squishing your cheeks. "It looked like you got sucked into a _blender _inside a _black hole._ Tell me it doesn't feel bad."

You shake your head. "It was pretty stomach-turning the first couple of times, but it's not so bad. It always feels like getting sucked through a straw, though."

Crystal's complexion goes green just listening to you. "Oh god…"

You don't feel like being puked on today. "Can I cast an anti-nausea spell on you?"

"You can do that?"

You nod and Crystal looks almost pathetically grateful. "Yes, _please_." A dramatic wave of your hand and a boop on the nose later you cast the spell. A second later she sags against you and sighs happily. "That's _sooo_ much better. I wonder if it'd keep me from getting motion sick when I fly?"

You give a chuckle, say, "Guess we'll give it a try sometime," and summon a chair over before putting her on it and levitating her back towards the table. Now that she's not feeling sick, her bright blue eyes are watching as you use spells to clean and ready the potatoes, float the pan down to start it heating, and funnel all the smoke from searing the steak out the window. The dishes cleaning themselves is a big hit too, and there are some very unsubtle hints that you should visit her dorm soon and 'practice using your powers'. From the peek you saw the other week you might need two wands and a patronus to clean _that_ hellhole up.

"Oh, yeah, before I forget, are you gonna give Amy a hoodie?"

Heading back towards your armoire you nod. "Unfortunately I don't have hot pink, but maybe she'd like dark green?" You pull out a Slytherin-colored one and hold it up.

"Yeah, it's dark enough she'll be okay with it."

You drape it over a chair and start walking back to the kitchen. "After dealing with Vicky that first week I started trying to come up with ways to block her aura for other people. I can't really recreate the same thing—it's powers related—but I think I have something that will mute the effects a bit. I can cast it on there if you'd like."

_That_ gets Crystal's attention immediately. "You can empower stuff like Dauntless?"

"Psh, nah. I can put a little effect on things like the shield. It doesn't get any stronger, but it'd last a while." You pick the hoodie back up and shake it out while changing the color to eye-searingly pink. "Like so. I can do it so it lasts a week, or just enough that it might stay that color for a day-ish?"

"Have you done anything to my hoodie?"

It was obviously enchanted for comfort at some point during its creation, but that would probably lead to questions about where it came from. "Nah, but I could if you want?"

Crystal nods. "Yeah, do the shield thing and let me test it first. Will it just work when I wear it and not when I take it off? Do I need to say some magic words?"

You sigh. "No need for any bippity-boppity-bullshit," and enchant her Ravenclaw hoodie with the emotion resistance spell. She seems confused when nothing obviously changes.

"Don't look like that, it only effects external sources trying to change your feelings, it doesn't go in and scrub your brain of previous uses. I don't have a fear aura to test it against, so you'll have to go provoke your cousin somehow."

Rolling her eyes, you think you head Crystal mutter "_That_ isn't hard."

Later, you're both ignoring the movie and you've been lectured on the Unwritten Rules by Laserdream. Her spin on them is similar to what you remember from canon, although she admits the whole 'respect civilian identities' thing is fairly wonky when it comes to New Wave.

Talk turns to the PRT and Protectorate after a while, and you have to admit that the kissing is much more interesting than hearing about the PRT, even if all of your clothes are staying on.

"Alright, the PRT is headed by Director Piggot, and she _looks_ like a pigg-o too. Supposedly she needs something—chemo, dialysis?—and won't let Amy anywhere near her. She's apparently a total bitch, and it takes a _lot_ for my mom to say that about someone." She turns in your arms to look you in the eye, "Most of the PRT teams have absolutely no chill even with established independents like New Wave. Don't get me wrong, they respond if you call in a captured cape or whatever, but they'll show up and have their fingers on their triggers and eye you up even after they've foamed and bagged whoever you've caught.

"They almost never share useful information like new villains showing up or gun shipments coming in or anything. And the times we've been called in to assist because Lung and Kaiser have gotten into it again? Never so much as a thank you, plenty of cold shoulders."

It's obvious from what Crystal's saying that the PRT doesn't seem to be part of the lighter-and-fluffier world that the less-frequent Endbringer attacks led to you believe. She goes on to name a few squad leaders who are pretty decent people, as well as a number that are more dickish than the norm.

As for the Protectorate, her opinion of Assault is pretty low—'if I was Battery I would have punched him a million times before now because he _cannot stop joking'_, and while she likes Armsmaster, 'most of the time it seems like three-quarters of his attention is on something other than you, maybe thinking of Tinkering or chatting with his Canadian girlfriend, and the other times he's nice, but almost seems like he's reading from a script.'

Miss Militia is apparently cool and fairly laid back, is probably the default cape who will show up at anything occurring overnight, but happens to be very twitchy when bombs or tripwires are involved.

Velocity almost never interacts with anyone, Dauntless is apparently a decent guy but somewhat subdued. Armsmaster is always sticking him with the police coordination stuff, so the cops tend to dislike him because he's he guy that pulls rank on them and gives them junkies to book and crime scenes to work on.

At that point making out becomes a lot more interesting than talking. Crystal's hands have ventured down to caress you over your jeans and it wouldn't take a mind-reader (even though you totally are one) to realize that every time she traces it she gets nervous. In return you find that she's very receptive to your magic touch. Even without direct access to more sensitive erogenous zones you have her pretty close to orgasm. Unfortunately her need to go pick Amy up from the hospital keeps things from getting good, but you're pretty sure that you know exactly what your girlfriend will be doing in her bed later.

…before she has to go pick Amy up and escort her from the hospital.

Thursday you're able to multi-task and start on getting a decent supply of various healing potions while doing some research into uses for Divination. A bit of looking nets you the Homonculous Charm, which can be cast on a map and allows Marauder's Map-like tracking. Maybe. There seems to be a requirement that the place in question is under wards of some kind in order to bounce signals off of or something. You don't quite understand it, and you'll need to figure out where to get a map of your lair or some similar location to test.

What does work better is some research into tracking charms. There's two major types—tracking a marked person, which is pretty easy and has a marking charms listed, and finding someone based on an item belonging to them, which didn't seem particularly useful until you also find information that discusses what 'belonging' means. It seems somewhat of a low bar, with any luck a moderately well-used wrench in Squealer's lab will be enough to lead you right to her.

Amazingly, Victoria manages to behave herself in class on Friday. Well, '_behave_'. She's pouty and sulky and doesn't so much as look at you, but she's not shedding aura all over the place, so it's something. Crystal has a patrol with her mother until late that she mentions is probably a subtle way of Photon Mom needling her for not introducing you immediately. The girls are fairly quiet, apparently doing some in-dorm movie night or something, so you play around with sketching out maps of your lair until you finally manage a working one. It's crude as hell, with you being a shapeless ink blot, but hey, it's a start.

A message from Crystal asking if you robbed the E88 sends you up to the roof to see smoke from a building downtown. Someone—or ones—hit something Empire-related and a chase ended up starting a fire.

While you told your girlfriend you didn't do it, you think you see the ones that did. With your good friend the supersensory charm you notice three monster dogs making good time about a mile and a half away. That…presents an opportunity, albeit a dangerous one.

[X][Undersiders] Try to mark them so they can be tracked later

You text back and ask if she knows of anyone who can grow monsters big enough to ride while trailing them from a fair distance. The answer is a 'no', so apparently the Undersiders aren't well-known quite yet.

Throwing on disillusionment and silencing spells as you apparate you also switch over to _non-existence_ for your Occlumentic defense. By that time the group has ducked into one of the many abandoned buildings and you follow by popping to the second floor and watch Bitch pry her dogs out of their meat suits. Tattletale looks twitchy, so you assume there's _something_ her power is picking up on, but you don't have eye contact to find out.

"Guys, something's…"

Rather than let her continue, you summon bats with the _avis_ spell—or at least you summon birds that look like some biotinker's second grade science project that blended birds and bats. They manage to fly, at least, which is all you need for them to swirl around the heads of the capes below you. You manage to tag Regent and Tattletale before Grue's darkness blots out line-of-sight, so a quick apparition back a couple of blocks and you head off to create a false trail for a bit.

You text Laserdream back with what you found and get a worrying response:

L: Lady Photon wants to meet and discuss what you found.

Agreed :W

Giving Laserdream a general heading to fly, you find a building far away from both the Undersiders and your lair and hold up a lit hand. Shortly after two white-clad figures descend, both wrapped in bubble shields. Crystal's in the lead, and her eyes are wide-fucking-open as she stares at you. You give her a quick nod of acknowledgement and she manages to control herself after a moment.

"Laserdream, Lady Photon, a pleasure," you intone gravely.

Photon Mom gives you a look-over and checks the rest of the roof before setting down. "And you are Warlock?" At your nod she continues, "Laserdream said you saw figures riding on animals?"

"While 'animals' was what I called them, a closer look showed them to be the size of cars, with bone plates. There were three, each had a rider and one was doubled up. They had packs on their backs that looked filled, but I was not close enough to see what. They retreated inside a building labelled 'Wilson's Cannery' roughly a mile away when I decided to back off."

Looking over in the direction you pointed, Lady Photon's lips twist. "I suppose getting the PRT to admit that Hellhound is in the city will be like pulling teeth." She turns back to you, tiara catching what little light is around. "It's good that you decided not to confront them; the warnings about her says she's responsible at least one death."

Lifting off she looks over to Laserdream and back to you. "I cannot at this time promise assistance if you continue to pursue the Merchants, but if you find yourself in a self-defense situation, please feel free to call on us."

You incline your head, "Thank you and good evening, Lady Photon."

[X][Exit] Try to sink into the shadows and apparate away

You had chosen to stand near the roof access hut to shield the light you held up from being obvious from every direction. Now it came in handy as you 'throw' the light into the air (really, you shoot white-colored wand sparks), tilt your head down a bit to hide the silver of your mask and slip into the deeper shadows next to it (and perhaps break line-of-sight). Popping to a roof a few blocks away you can just make out the two women's figures as they fly higher and head back towards Downtown.

Laserdream messages you shortly; seems like she can't help but text and fly.

L: Okay, that was fancy.

L: LP said you're 'one to watch carefully'.

L: and I didn't see any blending, so thanks for not making me puke.

When you make it back to your civilian phone there's an ominous text from Crystal.

C: When I come over tomorrow to pick you up, you'd better have your Halloween costume ready to show me.


	19. Sat, Feb 5

Since Crystal wasn't planning on coming over until mid-morning, you decide to pop over and stalk a teenage girl check in on Taylor. At the abandoned building you used for an apparition spot you can see her in the distance jogging and not doing a great job of it. She must have just started recently. You pop near a bus stop and manage to tag her with a tracker and a diagnostic as she puffs by—the infections are gone and the wounds are healed but the lack of sleep and stress are, if anything, worse.

You wait until she's a couple of blocks away before popping away, casting a bug ward spell to cleanse yourself and transfiguring your clothes to look more like a tracksuit. Grabbing some water bottles you put yourself in her future path and start jogging. You do a block and a half before you stop and act like you're tired, puffing and pulling on your water. Taylor arrives a short time later looking wrung out. At least you don't have to overact to be concerned.

"Holy shit, are you okay?" You take a step or two closer to her and move your hands like you don't want to invade her personal space.

Taylor's glasses are fogged up but you manage a basic connection. There's some crazy background information flowing through her head that must be the multi-tasking but you're able to filter it out easily enough. You hold out the unopened bottle as well as hitting her with some medical charms will assist in muscle regrowth and reduce fatigue.

"T-thanks," she pants, and you strike up an inane conversation about the little you know of jogging while checking her mind over. While she's not as directly bad as Amy, she's in a pretty bad state. You can see where she's been tempted to use her bugs to do _something_ to the Trio, but has distracted herself by focusing on her 'horrible pudgy belly' and jogging, which worked this week. You don't know if it'll continue working like in canon, or if she'll snap and suddenly they'll come down with super-crabs or something.

Unfortunately, now isn't the time to try mind-surgery, so you toss the girl a wave and head off in a different direction. Perhaps you could start jogging with her in the mornings and provide some kind of moral support?

Crystal arrives an hour or so later, sits in a kitchen chair and crosses her legs. "Get changed. I want to talk to—" she tilts her head down and deepens her voice, "—_Warlock._"

"You're about to say some bullshit, aren't you?"

"Get changed!" she demands, so you shuffle in to the bathroom and do so. As soon as you emerge she flies up to you and reaches out to almost touch the mask. "It's not gonna turn me in to a frog, is it?"

Sigh. "No."

Pressing her hand on your mask she pulls it back and cradles one hand to her chest and holds the other up dramatically by her brow. "Oh god! I just cut myself—_on the edge_." She holds the pose a moment before flying around you and looking you up and down. "Okay _Warlock_, we need to talk about your fashion choices. If you go out in public, people are going to think you're the villain. Hell, Kaiser wears a crown of blades and looks less edgy, _Warlock_."

"Are you going to do the deep voice thing every time you say my cape name?"

"_Yes._"

You hit her with a charm to make her voice sound like a cat and pull your hat and mask off while she meows at you. "This is hazing, and the school said I don't have to put up with it, so nyah." Sticking your tongue out, you shuck the coat and start walking back to the bathroom.

"Me-_yow."_ Looking over your shoulder you see her eyes focused on your ass, so you 'accidentally' drop your hat right before you close the door. She stared so hard you're afraid she might've learned to shoot beams out of her eyes.

When you get to the Pelhams' house you help your girlfriend cart in three bags of dirty clothes and are introduced to Sarah and Neil. Without the tiara on, Sarah has a very unfortunate 'I'd like to speak with the manager' haircut, but otherwise is a very attractive woman, but Neil is a goddamn mountain of a man, and you see a lot of custom doors in the house so he doesn't have to duck down.

After some of the small talk is made, you and Neil end up making lunch while the ladies sit at the kitchen island. Neil seems pretty amused that you changed the battery in Crystal's car. "That's an odd first date, but probably better than the guy who tried to take her to laser tag."

You'd facepalm but you have a knife in your hand so you settle for looking over at Crystal, who has hidden her face in her hands. Looking back over at her father you chuckle. "Seriously? When was this?"

Manpower starts laughing, "_Last year_. He stood in our house and told me with a straight face that—" he starts belly laughing so you have to turn to Sarah to get the rest of the story. Crystal has turned into a red ball of shame next to her mother.

"That boy said he was looking forward to taking my daughter to do something unusual and new for her." Lady Photon says, trying to keep a straight face by not looking at her hyena-laughing husband.

"Oh. Oh _wow."_ You pound Manpower on the back a couple of times ineffectually as he wipes his eyes. After he's controlled himself you look between Crystal's parents. "He must have been _so_ pretty."

Sarah hides her laugh behind a hand, but Neil gets set off again. Your girlfriend may have overheated, because there's a high-pitched noise coming from that direction.

This is, of course, the point where Amy walks in with headphones and a book. "Uncle Neil, are we doin—" She squeaks and looks around the room, finally settling on you. "Hi?"

You wave one onion-scented hand. "Hey. Lunch will be just a bit?" Worming into her mind you see that the throb of 'Vicky' that occurred whenever Glory Girl's aura touched her has died down, but that just highlights how muted everything else is. To make matters worse, you can detect _something_ adding to Amy's thoughts, little things that don't quite rise to the level of full feelings that seem to be driving her to use her powers. For the rest of the afternoon you manage to keep a handle on the conversation well enough to not raise any eyebrows and instead get a feeling for how her shard is worming things into her brain.

Later that evening as you're looking through what scant tomes there are on mind-healing, you come across a monograph that deals with a long-term love potion patient. It's startlingly close to what's occurring with Amy, and the medi-wizard lays out some work that they did via Legilimency to bring the patient back to something resembling normalcy. Considering that the normal treatment for love potioning is 'Purging potion & Obliviate liberally' it's a step in the right direction. The major problem you see is that it's very long-term and not subtle in the slightest. You'd need to do a lot of staring into Amy's eyes and poking in her brain meat, and you have no idea if that would fly.

C: Hey, dealt with Vicky this evening

C: shield thingy seems to work pretty well.

Good, I hoped it did :J

C: I'm gonna steal the hoodie, can you tinker it tomorrow?

Yup :J


	20. Sun, Feb 6

You can't believe you're planning on going _jogging._ Like, isn't this why you learned how to apparate so you didn't have to run like a muggle? Nevertheless you find yourself jogging into Taylor's neighborhood, water bottle in your hands. You're cheating like fuck with all the health monitoring you're doing to yourself, as well as almost regenerating muscle tears as they form. The extra stamina won't hurt you, and it's practice for what you're about to do to Taylor as soon as you meet up with her.

Her tracker has her starting out near her house, so you finagle your path to cross a street a bit in front of her and lead her down the next block. Stopping to wait for a light she catches up and you glance her way and give her a nod while pulling out your headphones. "Hey, you feeling better today?"

Taylor awkwardly raises a bottle in her offhand and shakes it a bit. "Yeah, uh, thanks for the water by the way."

Tossing your exercise-assist spells on her you establish another mental connection and just try to probe lightly to find the nexus of the Taylor-QA link. While you do that you manage some small talk with the skinny would-be warlord. When she mentions not having seen you around before you decide that a bit of honesty is probably a decent alibi.

"Yeah, I live in a apartment a couple miles thataway," you huff, hooking a thumb over your shoulder, "I don't run during the week because my schedule's all weird, so when I can force myself to do it I just kinda pick a direction and go."

"Oh, I thought maybe you were a new transfer to Winslow…"

You laugh. "I'm a freshman at BBU actually."

Even without the legilimency you could tell that Taylor was mortified at her comment and probably just wanted to turn around and never leave her house again but you take a chance and prod her gently with your mind. Using a combination of minor probes and leading questions you get the conversation going again. She doesn't admit to being bullied—that would take more mind control than you're willing to use—but she does mention homework 'getting wet' or 'going missing'. You can't say your suggestions are super useful, and certainly don't fix the underlying issue, but you offer some vague suggestions in the vein of using a lock on the backpack and where to find waterproofing wax. What you do in her mind is hopefully more helpful as you nudge her reluctance to speak with her father down a bit. It's a small thing in a grand design, but perhaps it will finally get her to tell Danny about Emma and company.

Once you return back to your apartment it's a more-normal hour and you decide to actually call your girlfriend rather than text. It sounds like she was sleeping in a bit, because her voice is muzzy when she answers. "H'lo?"

"So I've been reading your thread on PHO and there's speculation you've got a boyfriend."

A long stretch of silence is broken by a jaw-cracking yawn. "I really hope you have a point."

You do your best to project a smile through the phone. "Well, I _am_ the leading suspect, but they're not sure. I've decided I don't like that."

"James, you said—"

"So I'm coming over there and knocking on your door so your whole hall can hear it, then taking you out to lunch, and then we're going to the Forsberg Gallery. _And_ I'm gonna hold your hand the entire time."

The clattering noises through the phone probably herald Crystal making a mess as she starts getting ready. "I just bet you are. Give me a half-hour?"

"You have five minutes, and I'm knocking super hard and calling you 'baby'." You hang up before she can respond and find yourself bombarded by text messages before you can even grab your coat.

When you _actually_ show up fifteen minutes later Crystal manages to scowl with her lips while smiling with her eyes, an amazing combination. Looking up and down the hall she yanks you into her room and mutters something about almost being ready. Her dorm is messy as hell, you see papers scattered around and clothes heaped on dressers amongst other things.

After your girlfriend finishes with whatever she was doing she stands in front of you with hands on hips as you sit on her bed. "You said five minutes and I ended up scrambling. What do you have to say for yourself?"

You cross your arms and nod your head. "Sort!"

Watching Crystal gape as all of her clothes slot themselves into drawers and her floor appears from under the junk is amazing. Smiling up and then down at her you stand and head towards the door, opening it and bowing her out.

In the hallway you take her hand and lace your fingers together and your girlfriend actually looks startled like she didn't think you'd actually do it. She does manage to keep quiet until you're walking towards the parking lot, past some crime scene tape and bored cops. "Are you seriously going to hold my hand all day?"

"Of course not! I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have two hands on the wheel when driving. I'll just keep my hand on your thigh."

On the drive to the cafe you found at the Boardwalk Amy is mentioned, so you use that as a chance to bring something up.

"Speaking of Amy—or Panacea, I guess—I've been trying to expand my abilities into healing. I'd like to see if she can check over some of what I do and make sure it's not going to cause problems. I know she fixes everything—"

"Not _everything_," Crystal grumbles, "some things she doesn't heal to 'keep things fair'."

That takes a second to figure out. "Ah, that time of the month?" At her sputtering you continue, "Look, my mom sent me off to pick up tampons for her as soon as I could drive. If I didn't spontaneously combust dealing with it then, I'm not gonna be bothered now. So, can I try and diagnose you?"

She gets control of herself after a second and sighs. "Sure."

You verbalize a diagnostic and see pretty much what you expected—some cramps and aches, nothing super serious. "I can't exactly make it all go away, but I can ease the pain and cramping. Want me to do it?"

"Wait 'til I park. If it works out I'll talk to Amy. Mom's mentioned _Warlock_—" she gives you a moue as you say it with her—"to the rest of us, but I can't exactly tell Ames to call in my super creepy independent buddy just because he's mentioned he could heal. You're like a scythe away from being the grim reaper, and that doesn't go over well in hospitals."

"I'll grab my pastel summer-weight robes out of storage."

Despite not looking like she was in pain the dramatic sigh when you hit her with a painkiller and something to ease the cramps makes you happy. Your stroll over to the Boardwalk and eating in the little cafe gives you plenty of chances to get more practice at dipping into people's heads for just a second. You use it to determine who's going to be taking pictures of you and posting them online, but the exercise could be extended a number of other ways in the future.

While you're finishing up your tour of the Forsberg you pull Crystal into you and kiss the top of her head after she makes a joke about some of the more interesting modern art. Looking down at her you wink. "How many people do you think we've given diabetes?"

"I hope all of the ones who were really obvious about taking our pictures get it and their toes rot off. Let's head back to your place?" She sounds hopeful towards the end of the sentence and smiles when you nod back. "To the car!"

Later you're both cuddling on the couch while reading the crazy shit her PHO thread is coming up with. Apparently it's not enough that you might be dating, there are at least three other rumors, one of which is that you've been cheating on Crystal with Vicky. Someone cited her reaction on Wednesday as proof, but you've become partial to the theory that the two of you are secretly married and Crystal is carrying your lovechild. "How in the hell would that even work? We'd have no way of knowing if you're pregnant yet"

Crystal laughs in your ear. "It's not nearly as bad as they used to be, at one point there was some kind of love septa-hexa-octagon thing where Dean was blackmailing Amy and me into sex while Vicky was cheating on Dean with this guy that we had all helped rescue from a car crash and was seen hugging us after Amy healed him, then it was Amy and the guy, me and Dean, etc, etc. They finally kicked the dude off of PHO and now he has a long running fanfiction story where most of the Bay is either fucking or 'fighting with only 1% of my power'."

"Which you totally don't read, I'm sure."

"Which I totally don't read and laugh about. I think Clockblocker has gotten three girls pregnant so far, and has beaten up Lung? No idea why the guy thinks he's a stud, but whatever."

You run your hands underneath her shirt and trail fingers over her skin. "No talking about other studs when you're in my arms."

That doesn't even rate a chuckle as Crystal sinks back against you and turns her head so she can kiss you. "Hey, that magic hands thing that the girls talked about… was that you using your powers?"

"Yeah, in an untrained way. I've figured out how to change it up now."

Pulling her blonde hair up in a messy bun at the top of her head she hums. "Oh really? You gonna show me?"

Your left hand heats up and heads down to lay over her lower belly while your right sparks with pleasure and starts working its way up. You don't even make it up to the underside of her breasts before Crystal's hands come up over her head to run through your hair and her head lolls to the side and bares her neck to you.

By the time you've circled your hand up and down her stomach twice more—each time getting just a little closer to her breasts—she's popped the clasp of her bra and is almost shivering in anticipation.

You indulge her by stopping the flow of magic and cupping one full breast in your hand. Slowly you ramp the power up until her hips begin to roll against you before drawing your palm out and bringing your fingers in to tweak her nipple. The sighs and whimpers you pull from her rosy lips are beautiful music.

You don't keep track of how long you tease her, but Crystal's left hand has joined yours as she alternately pushes it down and back up, her desire for more warring with her embarrassment of her period. You ruffle the waistband of her jeans with a finger and taper the heat off, taking just a moment before you replace that with pleasure as well. Her sighs are replaced by sweet cries and she pushes your hand farther so you can feel the soft, silky hair on her mound. She's so close, all she needs is the slightest spark to—

"Cum for me, baby," you murmur and nibble her ear.

"_Jaaaaaaaames!"_ she moans, her hands scrabbling at nothing. You kiss down her neck while you softly ease her though a second peak and a third before letting her lay, languid and liquid in your arms. Crystal nuzzles her face into the side of your neck and goes so slack you think she's fallen asleep before she finally moves, flying up enough to roll over and bring you face to face. You kiss hungrily as she opens your fly and maneuvers your cock out. Both hands start to stroke as you cup her face and breathe a little deeper.

Breaking off the kiss by catching your lower lip between her teeth for a second, Crystal hovers lower and adjusts her grip on your shaft and just stares for almost a minute. Finally she moves forward and takes the head into her mouth. She's enthusiastic, if not super experienced, but the _need_ in her eyes and her mind draw you in and increase your own pleasure until you find yourself moaning her name and cumming.

Crystal manages to swallow the first blast, but pulls back and takes the next half-dozen all over her face and chest. She keeps wavering between looking exasperated and amused until you wave a hand and a cleaning charm at her. After that she tucks you back in to your pants and pats your crotch before flopping on top of you and declaring it nap time. You mentally pencil in some further Legilimency study for the late evening but decide that your girlfriend has an excellent idea and summon a blanket to cover you both.

AN: You do actually study Legilimency, but I liked ending the chapter there. I'll write up what you've learned in the Mind Arts after using it so much separately, because you may end up finding it useful later.


	21. Week 4

After cape class on Monday Vicky manages to contain herself and not make gagging noises as you give Crystal a kiss. "Wanna do something Wednesday?"

"Sure…" she trails off and narrows her eyes, "you're about to say 'laser tag', aren't you?"

"Psh, no," you were going to say paintball as a joke. "Bowling, dinner at wherever strikes our fancy, maybe a movie." Giving her another kiss you push her into the air and wave. "Say hi to your parents for me."

As your girlfriend disappears into the sky and you make your way back to your apartment. Your plans for the week involve making either a separate costume or alternate interpretation of one so you won't make small children cry when they see you, as well as improving your divination. If you can scry all these Merchant assholes then you wouldn't have to wander around the entire city trying to hunt them down. Improving your apparition wouldn't hurt either—you find it a little easier every time you do it, but making it instinctive would be perfect.

After you get to your lair you pull out some books on scrying methods before you switch the chest over to the clothes compartment and prop it open.

Looking through the books you decide to focus on catoptromancy. Having to find a bowl and still water would be irritating; mirrors can be found pretty much anywhere. If there was ever a need to do a little divination in the middle of a Merchant hideout you could swipe someone's coke mirror to do some magic, trying to scry with bongwater probably wouldn't work.

A non-talking but large silvered mirror is easy enough to source from the seventh compartment and you transfigure a separate interior room that can be shut off and made pitch dark.

The first exercise is to attempt to scry on a known location. A known _person _in a known location would be better, but you're not willing to screw up and be noticed scrying on Crystal and the rest of New Wave. Instead you picture yourself in the middle of your apartment. You get something immediately, an almost-holographic image appearing in the silver depths of the mirror. The problem is that it's 80's holography—blocky pseudo-shapes that tell you absolutely nothing. Slow repetition, however, yields results and by the sixth time you manage to get a full-color, decent facsimile of your apartment. A few more tries gets you images of some of your classrooms, all empty this time of the evening.

Since you are familiar with all of those locations testing to see if you can apparate there is worthless, and trying to skip ahead and scry for Squealer, 'Charles Shepard', 'Shaggy', or various combinations _starts_ to get you images, but fails, you continue on. The next exercise is to scry for known people in unfamiliar locations, so you can see if anyone you know happens to be somewhere new. Checking your phone it's almost 9, and Crystal has texted you so New Wave probably isn't meeting at the moment. You try to scry…

[X][Scry] Amy

Amy seems like a decent choice to try; you're fairly familiar with her but not too much, and she's likely in either a hospital, the Dallon house, or Crystal's old room, which you didn't see. You do run a quick check and scry yourself to make sure there isn't a big glowing copy of your face or anything obvious.

There isn't.

With that done you clear the mirror and concentrate on scrying Amy Dallon. This time the vision that forms does so slowly, enough that you can tell there are two people, but not enough so that you can see what's going on at first. One figure is laying on something, the other sitting on a chair with their arm out, touching the prone figure. Seems simple enough, it's probably the hospital.

Holding your wand out you tweak things slightly—like adjusting an old TV antenna—and everything rapidly snaps into clarity, colors filling in and sound coming though. It's not a hospital, it's a bedroom, likely Crystal's old room, and she's the one lying on the bed. Amy seems to be in the middle of speaking.

"—'ll do it. You're totally fixed."

Crystal smiles at her cousin. "Awesome, I just didn't want to worry, y'know?"

"Did you seriously think I would have made a mistake the first time I did it? The only way to make it less possible for you to get pregnant would be for me to just remove all of your eggs." Pulling her hand back, the healer crosses her arms. "If you're that worried, why not bring him by and I'll make him sterile too, assuming he says it's okay."

Siting up, buttoning her jeans, and pulling down her shirt, Crystal giggles a bit. "And what would that cost, you stealing his coat again?" When Amy blushes and looks away, your girlfriend smiles and leans in a bit. "It's okay to look, I know you're better about not touching than Vicky ever was."

Amy hunches down in the Slytherin hoodie she's wearing. "I don't want anything to do with your boyfriend!"

"I'm thinking about borrowing one of his flannel shirts, are you saying you don't want me to sneak a second one out?"

Spinning in the chair the brunette huffs. "Get out before I give you pimples again."

Crystal walks over and gives her cousin a hug. "You know I love you, Amy, I just like getting you worked up sometimes."

She heads out of the door with a wave, and Amy just sits statue-still as you hear a faint call to her parents and and a closing door.

A pop echoes in the quiet of the room as the world-famous healer stands and shucks her jeans off before pulling her phone out of the hoodie pocket and flicking it on. Two steps to the bed as nimble fingers navigate to something and pictures start showing, dissolving from one to the next.

Kneeling on the bed with her phone propped on a pillow, Amy has one hand working furiously between her legs as the other barely keeps her upright. The pictures seem to be of Victoria, but then change to Crystal, including shots in changing rooms and old bikini pictures.

Collapsing onto the bed fully she arches her back and buries her face into the covers so that only one eye is watching the phone. The hand that was holding her up swings back and spanks her own ass. Her hips buck and she moans _Crystal_ into the sheets.

The phone flips to another picture, of you and Crystal walking together with Amy in your coat just in frame. More spanks and she buries her face in the sheets completely, moaning half-comprehensible phrases. You think you make out your pussy, as well as his cock and James. The pictures now are of the two of you out at the Forsberg Gallery, stopping on the one where you kissed Crystal's head.

With one last stroke on her ass, her hips tense and buck and a strangled wail is swallowed by the mattress. When she recovers and rolls onto her back the entire front of her blue cotton panties are soaked through and almost translucent, a dark thatch shading her slit. She breathes deeply and feels for her phone, flipping over to a PHO thread and saving the picture someone took of you kissing Crystal. Licking her fingers absently, her hand starts trailing back down her chest.

You break the connection and blink at the mirror that now only shows your masked face. It's time to do something else for a bit.

After taking a break from flexing your magic you pick through the robes you summoned out of the trunk. Some of them actually look too horrible to have been worn even by Dumbledore, unless they came from some alternate universe where the old man used the sheer wrongness of these cloth cognition hazards to kill lesser wizards.

Of the ones you find that are merely hideous, you're amused by the one with prancing unicorns the most. It does cause you to sing that Erasure song in your head which is annoying after the hundredth time. The background color is a pale blue, maybe turquoise?, while the unicorns are pearlescent with multi-colored manes and tails. There seems to be a couple of different herds that gallop and graze together before scattering off and leaving silver streaks.

A second robe that draws your eye has patterns of trees and flowers, with ribbing that resembles ivy vines. Over the course of five minutes or so the bright colored flowers wither and die and the green leaves of the trees turn and fall, trailing down to the hem and ends of the sleeves before fading away as the robe blooms from the top-down again.

The last robe you pick out is 'Wizard that really loves the Grateful Dead'. It… you're not sure there's a base color on this thing, and who in the world thought_ that_ shade of orange looked good? The tie-die doesn't just shift colors, it pulses and changes shape as the colors bleed into each other. There's multiple layers of cloth as well, creating a drapey, hobo-looking effect.

While all three might be useful as disguises or something, you should probably focus on one of them. From there you can enchant something to project a different face/mask. Which is better, though?

[X][Outfit] Foliage

Tuesday afternoon you and Crystal grab computers at the library to work on things—she has an English paper and you finish some Macro homework. You also take the time to look up the Alcotts' address. It's in the same general area as Crystal's parents, so you're not super familiar with the area, but you have a basic frame of reference. You can pop around and possibly see her outside to tag her. If not, then there's always the creepy breaking-and-entering option.

Back in your lair in the evening you pull up images of nearby rooms in the mirror and try focusing on the image in front of you to apparate rather than the mental image you normally use. You almost think you have it a couple of times before pushing harder. This time instead of the squeezing sensation of regular apparition you feel like you're bursting into pieces and floating, slamming open the door and over to the first floor of the warehouse in just a second or two. It's a rush like being on a rollercoaster, fully aware and moving instead of the stutter in your awareness that true apparition gives. Suiting up and practicing outside lets you determine that it's very short ranged—less than half a mile—but allows you to make changes in your direction while you move. Taping yourself with your phone shows that you dissolve into smoke and become wispy as you travel and some playing around has you swooping up and down buildings with a billowing smoky trail behind you. There's also something keeping you from chain-moving like this, even though you can immediately move or talk when you arrive you can't force yourself from one smoke-port to another. There's a couple seconds where you're still smoky before you snap back to full definition and can smoke jump again.

Not quite what you were expecting, but welcome nonetheless! When you finally get the amusement of the new movement out of your system you head back in and manage to scry a hallway of the computer science building. From there you look in on a classroom you've never been in and after some initial visualization issues manage to apparate there. You're not quite at the level of being able to immediately scry a place and go there, but given ten minutes or so with a mirror and you're good to go.

Bowling on Wednesday is actually hilarious fun. You'd walked around near the bowling alley and found a hole-in-the-wall Greek joint that had _amazing_ gyros that left you both stuffed. After that, once you start bowling, it's apparent that neither of you are really any good, and combined with all of the food in your bellies, you don't try and compete so much as use the opportunity to trash-talk each other. You _do_ spot a little girl who keeps looking over at Crystal, especially her headband, and tugging on her mother's sleeve. After the third time you catch the girl staring you lean over and whisper in Crystal's ear. "I think your cover's been blown."

She manages to catch a peek while fiddling with her hair and sports a pleased grin, "I don't get a lot of those, Vicky gets all the little girls dressing up as her." On her next turn she very casually stops and rests her bowling ball on a bowl-shaped crimson shield as she stretches. When she looks back you can't help but roll your eyes. Smooth she ain't.

The little girl's eyes get _huge_ and she jukes past both of her parents to run over and bounce in front of the older blonde. "Laserdweam?"

Holy shit, she's totally adorable. Crystal kneels down and gives the girl a hug as the little brunette girl—Grace—starts babbling about how she wants to use 'pew-pew lasers!' to beat up bad guys. At your chuckle Grace turns to Crystal and points at you. "Who's that?"

"That's my boyfriend, James."

"But why? Boys are gwoss."

You are saved from dying of laughter when Grace's parents arrive and apologize profusely. Crystal waves them off and instead takes the younger girl over to the lane and creates a shield that blocks the gutters and they send a couple of balls down to get strikes. And if you helped push the ball to keep it from getting stuck a time or two with some subtle magic and no one seems the wiser, it was worth it to make two girls very happy.

After you finish bowling Crystal gives her number-one fan her hairband and you take a picture of the entire family with Grace standing on a forcefield with her arms around Crystal's neck. The little girl's grudging comment of you being 'okay, for a _boy_' almost sets you off again.

Crystal declares that she wants to watch a movie at your place, so you head in that direction. It's only a mile and change and you end up chatting the whole way. Crystal asks if you've come up with a way to silence things so you can watch the movie at full volume and smiles when you admit that you do.

Once again, she doesn't realize that she's not very slick at all. You've barely finished flicking silencing spells at the walls before you turn and get tackled by a flying blonde missile that carries you all the way to your bed. You don't even have a chance to bounce before her lips are on yours and her tongue is demanding entrance to your mouth. Capturing her hands you roll her over under you and pull back a moment. "So, what movie do you want to watch?"

The sheer exasperation of the look she shoots you distracts her long enough for you to sit up and pull your shirt off. Crystal immediately retaliates by spinning you with her flight and regaining her seat on top of you. She rolls her hips around as she slides her shirt up and you sit up to kiss each new exposed inch of her body. By the time she's pulled it over her head you're kissing again and the heat between the two of you explodes. Neither of you feels like teasing as hands go everywhere and clothes begin to fly off. You manage to use switching spells to get both of your shoes off, but you'd swear that Crystal managed her own magic to get her jeans off without either of you looking or coming up for air. Your mouths kiss lips and suck on exposed skin equally, greedily devouring each other's moans.

Once again rolling on top of her you trail kisses back down where you had so recently gone up, over her belly and hips, running fingers over her flawless skin. When you finally nuzzle your nose against the soft triangle of hair above her slit and swipe a magically-enhanced tongue she lifts off the bed with a cry, taking you with her. You merely adjust your arms to grip around her thighs to keep her from floating away and continue while kneeling on the bed. She's soaking wet, the heady aroma of her womanhood making you impossibly harder. Working first one, then two fingers in you hook them up gently and she collapses back onto the bed with her back arched. You lower her hips back down as you continue to devour her but she interrupts with a hand through your hair, tugging just enough to get you to look up.

"No more, you need to be inside me _right now_."

Never one to refuse a request like that you slide up her body and surreptitiously cast the lube spell on your cock before sliding the length against her slit. You barely have the time to use a hand to position yourself at her entrance before her arms and legs are grabbing at you. You try to resist and go slow but Crystal digs her heels in and _pulls_ and you sheathe yourself fully, her channel somehow both deep enough to take you without issue and as tight as a vise. As you look at her to make sure she's okay there's a very contented curl to her lips that makes you think of a cat that just ate a fat canary. A roll of your hips breaks that smirk and makes her eyes flutter shut. Now _you_ smirk as you slowly withdraw about half your length before plunging back in. That snaps her eyes back open and they lock on yours. You kiss her while you tease another slow cycle. "More?"

Flushed and with a brilliant smile, Crystal flexes her legs and drags herself down on your cock. "More. You can be harder, I'm not gonna break."

You move her hair aside and prop yourself on a arm right next to her head. Leaning down you steal a kiss. "Famous last words."

Starting out your first few thrusts are slow, but Crystal turns her head and bites at your wrist and you're spurred on faster, shaking her with full-length strokes. Your free hand trails up her side before you charge your fingers with magic and swipe them over her rosy nipple making her breath catch and her eyes blow wide open. On your next stroke you tip your hips a bit and rub along the top of her channel and she comes undone, shuddering and clutching at your back. Her cries of your name make the blood pound in your ears.

You need _more_ of her, you want to hear her voice cry out like that again. Carefully channeling magic to your cock you slow down and grind, lowing yourself to steal kisses and taste her sweet cries as you drive her out of her mind with pleasure.

Crystal never stops caressing you, no matter how many times she clenches down on you and shudders. Each time she does you force yourself to hold off until at last she breaks and begs for you to cum.

You speed up your last few strokes as your girlfriend's legs tense against your side. As you cum your magic pulses in sympathy dragging Crystal into an eye-rolling orgasm with you. She grabs and holds you to her with both arms and legs and you find yourself doing the same as you once again find yourself floating off the bed. Crystal takes a while to recover and manages not to drop you when she realizes you're almost brushing the ceiling, but does turn a brilliant red that you can watch spread down her neck all the way to her breasts. You keep your amusement to a brief chuckle and a kiss on the forehead and wrangle the two of you over so she's laying on you when you get ground-bound again.

Some indistinct muttering comes from the mass of blonde hair tucked against your shoulder before Crystal sits up and then pauses, wiggling her hips. "Are you still hard?"

As far as you can tell it's a side effect of using the magic touch, but you had completely recovered within a minute. You wiggle your fingers. "Maaaagic."

"Magic sex powers…" your girlfriend grumbles. "I'll find out a way to use mine—" she gets derailed for a moment as you run a thumb over her clit, "—smartass."

This time you cuddle in bed before Crystal heads back to her dorm. You get a text from her with a picture of yet another set of police tape and cars.

C: Apparently someone beat up the entire baseball team

Someone? Like one dude beat up :J

like twenty guys? :J

C: Yeah, kinda weird

C: maybe I can ask about it tomorrow

C: cause there's been a lot of things like that

Yeah. Let me know if I can help :J

Goodnight, baby :J

C: night! ;)

You don't have any classes with Crystal on Thursdays, but you had made tentative plans to eat dinner in the dining hall. You're sitting in macroeconomics and wishing that you weren't when a white blur flies past the window and catches your attention. A moment later your phone buzzes.

C: huge fight dntn aunt c hurt

Opening a news website shows that there's an escalating fight between the ABB and E88, with speculation that Brandish has been shot. The adults of New Wave have tried to protect civilians. Vicky, Eric, and Crystal haven't arrived yet, and the former two may not even know if Arcadia really doesn't have phone reception during the day.

No capes have been spotted yet, but the fight's only been going on for a short time. Apparently there are other fights that have broken out in other spots, including the Boardwalk, and all three gangs are involved in those. No info is available on where the PRT and Protectorate are at the moment.

C: aunt c shot vik erk amy not responding.

What do you do? You do have your shrunken trunk, which contains your cape outfit and potions.

[X][Fight] Sneak out of class, change, head downtown


	22. Downtown Throwdown (Thursday, Feb 10)

Well, shit. You throw a glance around and people are either zoned completely out or starting to look at their phones, obviously having seen Crystal scream past. No cameras and no attention on you, you hit the desk with a notice-me-not long enough to disillusion yourself and hit the door with a second NMN as you pass through it.

Once in the hall you only need to go down one room before you find an empty classroom where you apparate to your lair. Changing takes moments and you slide your extra wand into the holster on your other arm. By that point your Warlock phone has started up.

I heard you have wounded, where are you? :W

PRT supposedly dispatched to BW btw :W

L: dntn 35 n mulligan

L: in cafe

L: b down gsw to torso

L: lot of blood nurse helping

You pluck a couple of blood replenishers and a Wiggenweld, charm them unbreakable, and stash them in pockets. You have a decent idea of where those streets are, so disillusioning yourself again you apparate a few blocks away.

For being perhaps half a mile away from a gunfight, there isn't a soul on the street, but you can hear irregular _pop_s just out of sight. There's also a screech of metal and animal roars, but they sound farther away. Smokejumping to a roof farther down you finally see the site of the current battle.

Despite all the gunshots, only a small percentage of gang members seem to be armed with guns. That isn't helping Manpower though, as he is currently in the tatters of what was once a suit dodging attacks from both Stomtiger and a kimono-clad woman in white with long scraggly black hair who is shooting blasts and whips of water.

The regular gang members have bunkered down behind cars and construction dumpsters, occasionally popping up to fire off potshots, constantly screaming bile at each other.

Manpower seems to be holding his own, and from what you can tell over the screaming is trying to get both capes to stand down and let the wounded evacuate. Neither seems to be listening, and both seemingly ignore the occasional fire coming their way, the bullets ricocheting off a wind shield for the Nazi, and the force dissipating when they hit the bubble of water around the drowned-looking ABB cape.

Stormtiger launches another slash that is met by a water-whip and all sight down at street level is blocked by the explosion of water for a few seconds. You look past the fight and get a glimpse of a purple shield in the cafe at the intersection of the two streets. It looks like they've pulled back into the kitchen and Lady Photon is providing defense.

Pulling out your phone you text:

Eyes on fight, see the shield :W

L: tried 2 get out side alley

L: hkwlf next st over fghng lung

As if summoned by his name, you catch an infernal scraping sound and see silver and sparks fly from the next street over.

You…

[X] Plan Vote

You step back from the edge and slowly start texting with your left hand and conjuring birds with your right.

Making distraction :W

Will tp in and pop thru shield :W

In 15 sec :W

L: K

Looking at the masses of conjured birds blanketing the rooftop with you that you had summoned while typing you see more than a thousand soulless, beady eyes stare back at you. Rather than Hermione's little finches and swallows, yours look more like ravens and crows. It's like you're one mask away from being a plague doctor.

You billow into smoke as a black wave of wings descends upon the street and begins attacking. A number of idiots had been standing up and firing, but you manage to tag a number of them while on the move as they look up at the shadows that fell over them and freeze.

You made sure to exclude Manpower, but everyone else gets swamped by beaks and claws and the timbre of the screams goes from angry to confused to frightened and pained as you reform just outside Lady Photon's shield. Only a moment after she acknowledges you you're on the other side of the shield. Clearly no one explained what you looked like as the shrieks from your appearance are still thick in the air. You ignore them.

"Lady Photon," you nod your head and touch your hat brim. "I left a distraction behind me. Where is Brandish?"

She jerks her head back. "Kitchen. Do you have a shield you can put up?"

Pausing halfway through a step you turn back to face the entrance, put your arms out to the side, and _lift._ It takes a few seconds, but a head-height wall of transfigured concrete and tiles blocks the view to the street and the purple shield disappears moments later as Lady Photon heads towards the back. You can feel the frightened eyes following you as you move through the swinging door.

Brandish is writhing on a steel table on her stomach, hands white-knuckled along the edges. A brunette in cartoon-patterned, bloody scrubs is holding a distressingly wet, crimson cloth against the cape's left side. "Nurse, your assessment?"

Without looking up a strained voice says "Gunshot wound to left hypochondriac region, profuse bleeding, possible liver damage. I'm not sure, I'm just a pediatri- _madre Dios!_"

You ignore the cry when she turns to look at you and finish running your own diagnostic. "Spot on, the bullet is lodged in the middle of the liver. Keep pressure for a moment." Kneeling down in front of Brandish you're unsurprised when she flinches back and hisses. "Do I have your permission to heal you?"

"You didn't say he looked like fucking _death_, Sarah!" Brandish hisses venomously, a shining blade starting to appear in one hand before she smacks her palm down on the table and and clamps it on the edge again. "_Fuck!_ Fine, yes."

You flick your hand and hit her with the strongest painkiller that will leave her conscious. Carol immediately stops twisting in agony, her breathing still heavy. A ramekin flies into your other hand from the floor and you walk over to stand next to the shivering nurse. As much as you don't want to, you pull out your wand and hold it in your right hand—healing the liver and the cavitation damage is too delicate to try and do wandlessly. "You have done well," you murmur, "move your hands." As she does you summon the bullet out and drop it in the container with a _clink_ and hand it off to her before murmuring the first of a series of charms you'll need to use. As her liver begins to reknit you look up at the tiara-wearing woman. "I can have back to fighting fit in roughly two minutes. After that I will defer to your experience."

Lady Photon watches the twitch of your wand for a moment before turning and calling for Laserdream. When your girlfriend flies in a moment later she gives a report. "Lung's tied up chasing Hookwolf, they've moved farther east. I've seen Rune on a platform with someone else roughly south-east. Vicky and Eric finally responded, she's dropping Amy at Brockton General and he's coming straight here, she'll be right after." With a twitch of her lips she acknowledges you as she heads out to fly over the building and back up her father.

Brandish's liver is healed and you're working on closing the wound channel. "I bypassed large parts of the battle, but the west didn't seem to have capes, just gangs," you offer.

The cape's eyes drift to the front of the store and then back to where everyone is crowded in the back. "I'm unwilling to leave any civilians near either of those bastards if we have an option to retreat safely. Once Brandish is up she can guard while we ensure the west is clear, then we head that way." She floats out front, whether to stand guard or join in you don't know.

You manage to finish the healing perhaps half a minute later by using a spell to dump the contents of one of your blood replenishers into her stomach. "Alright, you're largely healed. You are low on blood, however, and while I did something to fix that it will take a few minutes to top you off. You will likely also be passing blood for the rest of the day. Have Panacea or a doctor check everything for a second opinion." With a flick you clean the blood that had soaked in to her clothes and mend them, then do the same to the nurse. Taking the ramekin back you set it down with a _clack_ on the table. "And a souvenir for your trouble."

Without waiting for a reply you head back to the wall and don't find Lady Photon anywhere. The sounds of gunfire nearby seems to have stopped and you smokejump out and throw a notice-me-not on yourself before venturing outside.

There are bird corpses littering the ground, thickest where the capes had been fighting. Stormtiger and a number of Empire thugs are on the ground under a purple shield while to the north there is an unnatural, heavy fog like a wall halfway up the block. You drop the notice-me-not and make sure to take an audible step and both Manpower and Lady Photon turn from where she had been fussing over her husband's clothes. "Brandish—"

"Is fine." You flick a hand and the fallen bird bodies dissolve away. "She was about two pints low so I forced her bone marrow to overproduce. You will want Panacea to check her over, if only to satisfy yourselves that it was all done correctly." A second flick repairs Manpower's suit.

Something blares _DANGER _in the back of your mind and you spin and look up to see Glory Girl barreling down on you, fist leading.


	23. Healing Hands with Panacea and Warlock

Victoria seems to catch a look at your mask right before you burst into smoke. Her eyes go wide and her mouth opens in horror. You reform perhaps fifty feet away and see her do an arm-flailing, ass-over-teakettle front flip and come to a stop in midair. After righting herself she spins around until she sees you and holds her hands up. "OhmigodImsorry! I didn't see your mask, I thought you were threatening to hit them with someth-"

You poke into her head and she seems completely honest. She is internally freaking out that she almost hit the person who was supposedly healing her mother. Holding up a hand you stop her. "Glory Girl. I see where you may have interpreted it that way, and I appreciate your explanation and discretion ."

Glory Girl floats closer and you take her hand and mime a kiss to the back of it. "I am, as you may have guessed, Warlock. Your mother is inside the cafe, and is healed if you wish to check up on her."

The cape-clad teenager blinks at you for a moment before swooping forward for a hug and blasting into the cafe. You're left cocking your head and pivoting to the adult capes. "….so anyhow, what about them?" You hook a thumb over at the captives.

Sarah and Neil exchange an entire conversation of looks before they turn to you. "Do you have anything in your bag of tricks to subdue them?"

You end up positioning yourself behind Stormtiger's flattened form and hitting him with a _stupefy_ as soon as Lady Photon drops her shield. Simple. As Shielder and Laserdream reappear from the fog you run off the rest of the Empire goons; no one is particularly willing to carry them if knocked out and you don't want them around noncombatants.

Glory Girl and Brandish emerge herding the civilians once the coast is clear and you all head west. Manpower is carrying the Empire cape, now not only stunned, but body-bound and wrapped in conjured chain, over one shoulder. Shielder is stationed above the middle of the pack ready to drop a shield if needed while the rest of you orbit around to check side streets and the like. Since you can't move faster than the slowest person, you also manage to heal everyone of their incidental injuries while on the move thanks to the lack of interruptions.

Roughly ten minutes of slow travel later and you come upon a police cordon and manage to drop off the civilians. Lady Photon puts in a call to the PRT for a cape pickup and you're all discussing heading back as the Lung fight has escalated into the ABB leader versus Hookwolf, Kaiser, and his valkyries.

"Honestly, it's unlikely to last until Brandish or I get there, the Empire's probably looking for escape options." Manpower offers. "Armsmaster always has something new to try and has come damned close to getting Lung on a number of occasions, and if it works on a dragon when he's mad it's gonna work on a guy in an armor suit."

A moment later Lady Photon flies over and looks at the assembled capes. Laserdream and Glory Girl are floating on either side of you while Shielder is above roof-height looking around. "Piggot was as unhelpful as usual, but Lt. Sanchez gave me some information. The Protectorate is coming in force to handle Lung, Oni Lee as also joined in and that new water cape of theirs seems to be moving that way. Rune is flying around on one of her platforms and is believed to have Victor and a new cape recruit harassing the ABB back towards their territory.

"The Boardwalk attacks were apparently a diversion to get PRT troopers out of the building on other things, now the Merchants are assaulting PRT HQ. There's also a number of wounded but not a lot of critical cases coming in according to Amy.

"In that light, I'd like to assist the PRT HQ with our flyers—Armsmaster is unlikely to welcome our help, and there are a number of noncombatants in the building." She turns to you, "Warlock, you can heal so you may want to help at the hospital; Glory Girl can go with you and handle introductions if you wish, but would need to meet up with us afterwards. However if you want to assist us your help would be appreciated."

You…

[x][Phase 2] Join Panacea at Brockton General

-[x] Apparate Brandish and Manpower to the PRT HQ first.

You incline your head. "I'll assist with healing; since you all have experience working together I would likely get in the way."

"It might cause issues, although if you are willing we should take the time to familiarize each other with our powers at some point in the future." She turns to her sister and husband, "I don't know if you'll manage to make it—"

"I can teleport them there," you interject.

Whipping her head back around, Lady Photon looks immediately interested. "You can take people with you?"

"Two people max, it's disorienting the first couple of times it happens, and Laserdream said it looks horrible from this side." You flip your hands out in a 'what can you do?' gesture. "Seriously, I can heal, so I can fix your nausea if it bothers you that much, but someone's probably going to be sick." You can hear Eric snickering at his sister above your head.

Theres an entire unvoiced conversation between the three adults before Sarah says, "Is it possible to transport all of us, two at a time?"

Yep, somehow you thought this might happen. "Sure, but this coat is dry clean only," you comment dryly. Holding your arms out you continue, "Hold on tight, it feels like being squeezed in a tube but only lasts a split second. Your phones will need a moment to reconnect afterwards."

Manpower and Lady Photon step up first. You're unsurprised when the former's hand has an electrical prickle, probably of his shields being up. "There's a parking garage about two blocks from PRT HQ, is that good?"

"Yes." Pop.

It's immediately obvious where Crystal gets her tender stomach from, Sarah goes green and dry heaves while Neil takes a single stumbling step away and then laughs. "Holy shit that's a rush!" He places a large hand on his wife's back as you hit her with an anti-nausea spell.

By the time she's fished out her phone it's connected and she puts it to her ear.

"It worked."

"No, and tell Eric I never want to see the video he took ever."

"Let Warlock fix the nausea. It is not anything close to combat-workable."

She turns to look at you while still talking on the phone. "Crystal and Eric next, then you. Victoria and Warlock to the hospital, she introduces him to Amy and flies to join us at top speed." You nod and pop back, getting startled reactions from the three New Wave capes.

Your girlfriend is already looking half-sick, so you hit her with a spell and get a brilliantly grateful smile. Both kids grab on to your arms, albeit hesitantly, and you're suddenly back on the roof with their parents. You fix Eric up as Crystal explains to her mom she got the treatment ahead of time.

Carol is pretty stoic about the whole thing and you're finally left with a nervous, hovering Glory Girl. Her aura keeps leaking and getting pulled back under control and she gives you a strained smile. "Uh, can you do something to keep me from puking?"

"Sure, here." You flip an anti-nausea spell at her with your fingers and add a light touch of calming.

Touching down Vicky takes your arm and wraps her own arms around it. "Oh god, thank you. I was getting nervous enough to work myself into getting sick."

You apparate to near the hospital and her head jerks back. "Ugh. You say it gets better?"

"It did for me."

"Nothin' personal, but I don't wanna find out." She shakes herself after a moment and takes your hand as she floats forwards. "C'mon, let's find Ames and get this sorted. I have heads to crack."

While there's a susurrus when you enter, having the perky and white-clad Glory Girl tug you along probably did a lot to keep people from freaking out. You're ushered back to a surgical room where people are wheeled or walked in, healed, and taken out a second set of doors. Panacea finishes up the healing she's doing before the three of you are quickly ensconced in a private room.

"So this is Warlock. He healed mom when she got shot and helped get everyone over to he PRT fight. He's here to help heal, right?" The blonde looks over at you questioningly.

"Yes. New Wave and I wouldn't know how to work together and I don't want to risk friendly fire." You step forward and take the hand Amy holds out and mime another kiss to the back. "Pleased to meet you Panacea, I will defer to your experience."

When you raise your head, Panacea has a faint blush hiding amongst the freckles on her nose and is looking at your leather-clad hand. Still, she blinks and looks over your dark clothes. "I can see if there are spare labcoats around, it would be best if you weren't quite so…"

"Edgy? I've gotten that from Laserdream. Would a white robe like yours work? I'm not one for fashion, but leather armor and a lab coat doesn't sound like it mixes well."

"I don't keep a spare on me," the healer comments sarcastically.

Setting the hat aside you pull off your coat and turn away to shake it out. In the middle of one of the shakes you transfigure it to match Panacea's white robe without the red crosses. Turning back while shrugging it over your shoulders you pull the hood up and wait for the girls to finish the conversation they're suddenly in the midst of. Glory Girl gives you a pair of thumbs up while Panacea nods.

"The mask is a bit… yeah," the shorter brunette waves her hands, "but that's a lot better."

Victoria looks at her phone and nods. "Gotta get back. One of us will let you know when we're done, Ames." She's out the door in a flash, leaving one of the foremost healers around shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

"So, uh…." Amy seems to be doing her best to sink into her robes. "What do you need to do your healing?"

When you pull out a wand and wiggle it around you don't even wait for the questions you're sure will be coming. "It's a focus. I'm a grab-bag and the wand helps with the fiddly details of healing. I will probably say things like 'spells' instead of 'powers', just chalk it up to me being a D&D nerd in high school." You shrug and Amy chews on her lip for a moment before throwing her hands up.

"Good enough, let me talk to whoever's doing triage and have them send one case through and I'll watch what you're doing."

You follow her out and are introduced to one of the hospital administrators who manages crisis healing like this. You're taken back to the surgical room that's normally used and shortly after a middle-aged man is wheeled in with a splinted leg. Amy explains that you are also a healer and she's there to verify what's going on. Once the man has agreed to be healed you hit him with a diagnostic.

"Lower leg fracture, both tibia and fibula. Blood supply to the foot has been reduced, and there's possible nerve damage."

Amy hums a bit and takes the paperwork from the intern standing nearby. "I agree. Anything else?"

Turning your masked head to look at the man you intone gravely. "Fairly major atherosclerosis, mainly around the kidneys, old injuries that look like sports of some kind."

The man runs a hand through his thinning hair and looks faintly abashed as the two of you talk over him. Panacea nods at you though and gestures with her free hand. "Everyone has narrowed arteries, but yes, they're a bit worse than I'd expect to see. Heal the leg before you start getting any other ideas."

Since the bone hasn't even broken the skin you're able to straighten and fuse it back together in moments, then turn to repairing the broken blood vessels and nerve damage. Perhaps thirty seconds later you're done and Amy is staring at your mask with narrowed eyes. Without breaking the stare down she says, "Can you do anything else?"

A charm takes care of the plaque buildup easily enough, but you stop at that point. "I can chase old injuries all day, but each would need to be treated separately."

Amy finally breaks the stare. "We are doing emergency medicine, not fixing everything." Ha ha, what a little hypocrite! She pulls you over and shows where you initial the paperwork and detail what you did. "Thank you for volunteering Mr. Donovan, the plaque buildup in your arteries was taken care of as well."

After the patient is taken out the opposite doors it looks like Amy wants to say something before a stretcher is hustled in at speed, the swinging doors hitting their stops with a bang. The new patient has rebar still sticking through their chest and a swarm of nurses following along. Amy lunges for skin and you throw a diagnostic and an anesthetic . "Through the right lung, there's bone fragments all in the lung tissue." You turn to the shorter girl. "I can remove the rebar, you start healing?" She nods and you vanish the entire bar and hit the patient with a calming charm as well. The readouts you get from her healing are wild—bone fragments and blood disappear and new lung tissue is suddenly in its place. You take the paperwork and scribble down notes on what she's doing and assist as needed and the woman is stable and breathing normally within a few minutes.

When you absently hit Panacea's robe with a cleaning charm to get blood spatters off of it she jerks in surprised before she manages a wry smile. "You do laundry too?"

You chuckle. "Yes, sorry. Should've asked first."

She steps closer and takes a deep breath before giving you a small smile. "It's okay. I think you're perfectly fine to do healing. We'll run two at a time through here and we can call for backup from each other if something major comes up?"

The two of you arrange things with the admin coordinating this circus and end up standing back-to-back as you handle the cases that have been judged major enough for parahuman healing. Most of them involve crush damage from collapsing walls or bullet wounds, with the occasional laceration from flying debris. Over the next hour you get a few people pushed to the head of the line due to more serious injuries like the heart attack you had to heal.

With two of you working, Amy is able to slip off and check up on the rest of New Wave, who all seem to have come through things with minimal issues and are wrapped up in reams of paperwork. You're both taking a breather and Amy is asking gently probing questions about how your healing works when an intern pops in and tells you that the hospital is going to shift people back to the regular emergency room and out of the crisis setup and of course—of course—that's when someone stands up and demands to be healed by Panacea.

And pulls out his gun.

The first the two of you hear are the startled yells from people down the hallway. Amy shoots you a look as you sheathe your wand and stride to the doors and out into the lobby that's been used as a staging area.

You establish a mental connection as soon as you see the guy, bulling through without full eye contact. The scruffy idiot doesn't need to be seen by anyone. He's not even really hurt, just hopped up on at least five different drugs (three of which are hallucinogenic) and currently imagining you painted like one of those Day of the Dead sugar skulls. He's not actually a Merchant, just a really good customer of them.

[X][Druggie] Bodybind

You don't even break stride, merely flicking your fingers at him and walking up to the now-statue. Catching his outstretched arm before he tips over you float him onto his back and begin to manipulate his bound form to remove the gun from his hand. By the time security arrives a minute or two later you have his gun floating and locked open, the magazine hovering next to it. You are standing behind a kneeling, still body-bound idiot with your arms crossed and what you hope is a suitably intimidating aura. Everyone around is stone-fucking silent.

The younger of the two guards approaches you slowly, his eyes flicking between you and the unmoving intruder. "Is he?"

"Frozen but aware of what is going on. I will unfreeze him at your command."

They wisely bag the weapon before putting their own handcuffs on the guy's arms. "Ready."

Drug-dude—Shane, actually—goes from 0 to 100 real fucking quick, letting off a howl and bucking against his cuffs and the guards. The security guys are big dudes, but this skinny tweaker is running on drug strength, apparently. After the second or third time he screams something about 'getting that healer bitch' and almost getting loose you bind him again and walk around to look him in the eye. Summoning some magic into your voice you do your best to impress the words you speak onto him.

"Cᴇᴀsᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ғᴏᴏʟɪsʜ ᴍᴏʀᴛᴀʟ sᴛʀᴜɢɢʟᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅɪsᴛᴜʀʙ Pᴀɴᴀᴄᴇᴀ ɴᴏ ᴍᴏʀᴇ!"

_This _time when you release him he goes ash-white and is dragged off in short order.

You can't find it within yourself to be surprised later that night when there are pictures of you with photoshopped wings being called the 'Angel of Death'

Amy gets a text not too long after from Laserdream asking if she's okay with you apparating her to the Captain's Hill area, while you get one asking you not to give away that you know where the Pelham house is exactly. You take the time while Amy is rounding up her backpack and school clothes to speak with the administrator and direct needed documentation to New Wave; you're not part of the team, but they offered to act as a drop-off for the forms that would show you as a healer.

Once Amy returns (wearing your hat, you notice) you adjourn to a staffroom before popping the two of you to a park near the entrance of the subdivision. The brunette sags against you as you appear and seems to need a moment before she's good to go. Laserdream shows up not too long after in her parents' car to shuttle Amy home. Reclaiming your hat, you tip it to both of them and wait until Crystal turns her head to apparate back to your lair.

You do some checking up on the various news websites and PHO to see how things have shaken out.

Lung and Kaiser escaped, but Menja was captured and Oni Lee and Hookwolf both seemed to be seriously hurt. The latter may very well be back up to strength once Othala gets a hand on him, but he was seen changing back to human with serious burns and trouble moving before being carried off on Rune's platform.

The Merchant attack never breached the PRT building, and the regular news outlets aren't saying anything, but PHO has a persistent rumor—not started by any of the big names as far as you can tell—that Skidmark was broken out anyway. The silence from the PRT isn't unusual, but it's certainly not helping quell any rumors.

There are pictures of you, although not your entrance into the fight downtown. A picture of Glory Girl towing you along in her wake at the hospital is spawning memes about emo kids and cheerleaders. Lady Photon and the hospital have released separate statements thanking you for your assistance in healing Brandish for the former and assisting Panacea for the latter. No one seemed to catch you teleporting, but there are at least two threads trying to figure out what your powers are. At least one person (well, Void_Cowboy, not really a 'person') believes you're some kind of necromancer and everyone you treated is now your undead slave.

Fuckin' Greg.

You're about to do your Occlumency exercises and turn in for the night when your phone rings. It's Crystal, and you pick it up immediately. "Hey, you're calling late."

"Yeah, hey…. D'you mind if I sleep over tonight?"

"Sure, want me to open the window for you or do you want to use the door?" You've just rolled out of bed before a knock on the window leads you in that direction.

Crystal's barely through the window before she hugs you, and she wraps herself around you even as you roll back into bed. "Hey, what's wrong?"

She's cold from the weather and, even worse, digs her frozen nose into your neck. "I got back to campus and it seemed like half the hall was waiting to slap me on the back like they were my personal cheering section. It just felt really strange, and then I was alone in my room and the last time there was a big fight like that I was still living at home." She cuddles in more as you start switching her clothes with air until she's down to a bra and panties. Shucking the bra herself you kiss her softly and toss a warming charm at her ice-cold feet before she gets the bright idea to warm them on you. "I just need to know I'm in a safe place, and Amy's sleeping in my room."

It's not a time for romance, and even if you were as thick as Greg Veder you'd realize that. You could, however, try guiding Crystal through the same centering and calming exercises that you normally use for Occlumency. It may be possible for her to benefit from it, and if she does, then Amy might as well.

[X][Occlumency] Just cuddle with her

You cuddle your girlfriend to you—Occlumency can wait. You can assuage her fears in a different way, though.

"So, one of the things I can do is put wards up on a location. It's like an alarm system, and anyone who tries to get into the apartment is gonna wake me up completely. I'm your guard dog tonight."

Even though she had already relaxed against you, a bit of tension you didn't know she still held seems to melt away. A few more kisses while you both get comfortable and she's asleep, with you following closely after.


	24. Merchant Mop-up (Feb 12)

You're never going to enjoy jogging. You're cheating horribly with magic so it's not _uncomfortable_ or _painful_, but you can't say the thought of pounding the pavement brings you any joy either. You allow yourself to see Taylor first this time and hold up a hand in a half-wave. While you cover the next couple of blocks you refresh the tracking spell and cast the normal slate of spells you tend to use for her.

Stress is slightly down, but then the Brockton Bay school district _did_ cancel classes on Friday, so she had a day away from her tormentors. A legilimency connection snaps into place without eye contact, which is nice considering how hesitant she is to meet people's eyes otherwise.

Once you come to a stop Taylor actually takes the initiative to start up a conversation. "Didn't you say that you just pick a random direction and jog on weekends?"

"Yeah, normally. _However_, I wanted to check up on you and see how your homework fared."

Taylor rocks side to side and fiddles her fingers around nervously. "Better. I didn't have a chance to waterproof anything, but I started using plastic bags to wrap things in…"

You hand her a partially-used bar of weatherproofing wax. "I have a canvas satchel I use sometimes and refinished it recently. It only works on fabric, but it works pretty well." When she looks like she's going to say something awkward you turn and start moving again and change subjects. "So we still had to go to class on Friday even with all of the chaos. I heard y'all had the day off though?"

The conversation changes to the fights themselves and Taylor—who from your mental checks spent most of the day in the nearest library using a computer—mentions something that you hadn't read on PHO.

"Yeah, someone said that Warlock guy helped New Wave downtown, but that a bunch of birds attacked people. Nobody saw him like _command_ them or anything, but no one else that was around does any mastering like that."

You… hadn't considered that, but you can totally see why that might pique the interest of the bug-controlling cape. Still, best not to get her hopes up. "But then later he was supposedly healing with Panacea. How does bird summoning or controlling or whatever turn into healing?"

Puffing beside you in silence for a bit, she ends up shrugging. "Don't know." A flash of pictures of you comes up in her mind before she very nonchalantly (actually, _totally_ chalantly) says "By the way, I saw pictures of someone who looked like you on PHO while I was looking…"

"Yes, I'm dating Laserdream—or Crystal, really." You look at her out of the corner of your eye. "Have they started using my real name, or are they still calling me 'green-eyes' and 'peacoat'? You've largely ignored Crystal's thread for the past week.

"Uh… apparently your new nickname is 'Gwoss' because of some little girl?"

All the magic in the world can't keep you running when you're laughing instead, and you end up leaning against a light pole while you recover your breath. "Oh my god, why are people on the internet so weird?"

You discuss where the name came from as you jog a bit more, and you manage to discover that Taylor is on the edge of telling her father about the abuse. You give a little push so that she'll make a decision rather than waffling, but try not to influence her either way.

With that bit of morning work done you text Crystal and tell her you're going to repair the wall you made at the cafe. Being the nice girl she is she offers to come with you to 'offset some of that edginess'. She brings a bag with a suit over and the two of you change in front of each other. Crystal finds the two separate pieces of your leather armor fusing into one amazing, but really enjoys sticking your mask to her face and posing in the mirror. Hearing her talk in a British accent is pretty hot, too.

After popping the two of you to the nearby rooftop, it appears that while the damaged vehicles have been towed away, the streets aren't open for car traffic. Broken glass is everywhere and dumpsters are overturned, walls have buckled or broken, the entire street is a total mess. You exchange a look with Laserdream and nod before she lifts off and settles at the entrance with you joining her in a billow of smoke.

Inside the cafe people are poking at the wall with a faint feeling of despair. Your entrance luckily doesn't cause any screaming, but it does seem like a close thing.

The older woman who ends up being the owner was one of the people examining your prior work. She's nervous as hell and wringing her hands as she comes over to you. "Uh, Señor—I mean Mister Warlock, I…"

"I apologize for not coming back yesterday, but I am here to remove the wall for you." You tip your hat to her. "If you want to make sure everyone moves away I'll put the floor back the way it was."

"You can just reverse it like that?"

You nod and start to stretch out your hands when another woman—the owner's daughter—rounds the wall. "Wait, wait! Instead of just getting rid of it, can you make it shorter instead?"

Flicking your legilimency over you see exactly where she's going with this. "You mean turn it in to something like a lunch counter where you can put chairs?"

"Exactly!" She turns to her mother and they converse in rapid-fire Spanish. Both ladies like the idea, but the older woman is afraid to ask too much of a cape.

In order to give them a moment you turn and restore both glass fronts with a wave of your hand and startled exclamations from people when pieces of glass fly in to reform the panes. You manage to fix a couple of table and chair sets as well by the time the talking stops. You turn back to the amazed women and cock your head. "So..?"

"Ah, yes. If it would not be any trouble…"

"It isn't," you reply, holding your hands out and _push_ing down. The head-high wall shrinks back down to something a little shorter and spreads out into more of a 'T' shape. Someone drags over a barstool and there's a little fiddling to get the height right, but they're left with an arc of lifted melded concrete with plenty of space to move around the edges. A couple more mending charms and a cleaning charm or two and you feel pretty good about leaving the place better than you found it. Rosa, the owner, is crying in a newly-repaired seat and her daughter Maria doesn't seem far behind as she thanks you.

"You are both very welcome. Please have an actual electrician check over the wiring—it should be repaired but I don't exactly have a license."

[X][Cafe] Anything else you do while you're there?

Maria seems hesitant, but decides to ask anyway. "Does your fixing trick work with ahh, like mixers and things?"

The full-face mask means that you're kinda stuck doing the head-tilt thing to emote when you're thinking, but at least it seems to get the idea across. "The more electronic something and the more computerized bits it has, the less likely I'll be able to fix it, but if it's already broken I won't make it _worse_."

You go on a tour of the back of the house and dispense mending charms and cleaning charms liberally. One tiny little nook holds a number of broken pieces of equipment including three industrial-sized mixers. Repairing them and floating one out to a plug, Maria hooks it up while Rosa and Crystal look on. When it fires up as smoothly as the day it was made there's happy yelling and calls being sent off to some relative who is apparently a baker.

Rosa gets up and hugs you, the older South American woman telling you that you eat free in the future. You can't help but chuckle when you picture yourself alone at a table trying to eat with a full-face mask on and scaring away people who walk in the door, but you appreciate the sentiment if nothing else.

Walking _out_ of the cafe brings you right into the cameras and phones of innumerable cape-seekers. You wish you had just left from directly inside, but then the place would be swamped by jerks trying to figure out where you'd disappeared to. Questions are shouted to both you and Laserdream, but no one seems willing to get in your direct way as you let the newly-repaired doors shut behind you. You…

[X][Outside] Sit and answer a question or two (list a question)

You'd had a chat with Crystal while you were fixing things so she's clued in to any answers you give. She'll also take care of her own exit and regroup with you later so you can leave at will. Girding your loins and reinforcing your Occlumency, you face the salivating mob.

…it's not _that_ big of a group. Perhaps two are actual reporters—you think one's a junior reporter shooting B-roll for one of the local TV stations, and another might be for the newspaper. The other twenty or so people just seem to be cape junkies. All of them have some kind of phone or camera or what-have-you trained on you as you exit. After holding the door for Laserdream you turn and gesture everyone back a bit before using both hands to raise up both a throne-looking chair and a smaller director's chair out of cleaned concrete. You seat your companion in the latter while you take the former and turn to the now-quiet crowd.

"Since you have made your desires clear I will answer a few questions. I will answer only what I wish to answer, only as much as I want to reveal, and I will ask you to remember that I am not beholden to answer to any of you." You see that the TV reporter is recording but simultaneously trying to set up their tripod so you point to who you think is the newspaper reporter first. "Ask."

To their credit, the woman looks over to make sure her fellow professional is getting video before asking, "What _exactly_ were you doing inside this cafe?"

Ah, a softball as the first question, excellent. You explain how some of New Wave had been eating when the battle broke out, and how you had erected a shield, then come back today to fix the damage you had done.

"…the windows had long been shot out by the time I arrived, but I doubt either the ABB or the Empire are the type to do any good for the community or small business, so I did what I could there as well." You point to the other reporter. "Your question?"

"And just what _are_ your powers, Warlock?"

You rear back a bit and press your hand to your chest as if affronted. "Such a direct and rude question." You let him sputter for a second before continuing, "I actually don't have powers, everything you see is sleight-of-hand."

"How d-"

You cut him off and wiggle your fingers. "Maaaagic. Next question? Yes, you in the yellow hoodie."

"Why do you look like a villain?"

"Why do you think I look like a villain?" You idly gesture at your costume. "Are you perhaps confusing _villain_ for _intimidating?_ Simply because I don't feel the need to wear a one-piece," you hook a thumb at Laserdream, "doesn't mean I'm a villain. Next." You point out someone else.

"You've been called the 'Angel of Death'. How do you respond to that?"

You do the head-cock thing. "Am I supposed to care about a name that someone with spare time and Photoshop gave me?" Propping an elbow on the armrest you roll your wrist and make a sweeping gesture with your hand. "I healed under the supervision of Panacea and I detained an idiot who pulled a gun. The names people bestow on me mean nothing. You next."

"Are you single?"

You put your masked face in one hand and audibly sigh. "Why did I not expect that question? No, I am not in a relationship. Kissing a mask instead of lips seems to be a turn-off for people. Who knew?" You point back to the TV reporter. "Last question."

"You were seen using a stick when healing, where is it?"

"Look, didn't I just say that my powers were sleight of hand?" You stand and meld the seats back into the ground, then hold out your hands in front of you, fingers together. As you draw them apart you conjure a 'wand' so that it looks like it's coming out of your sleeves. "A wand directs your attention," you flick it out and send off sparks, "so that you don't see—" pulling your hat off you tap it and a goose _shoots_ out and honks angrily as people step back. When everyone looks at the furious animal you give Laserdream a wave, hold the hat out and expand it so that it covers you completely, then complete your sentence. "—the magic happen!"

You burst into smoke and manage to hit the goose with a _finite_ as you escape up to a rooftop and apparate away.

Later, after you catch up with Crystal she gives you a skeptical look. "So you're a single stage magician?"

"_Warlock_ is single, yes. And I'm just a stage magician today. Tomorrow I'll be Eidolon's secret lovechild."

"We have got to get you verified on PHO, your shit talking will get people banned left and right in your thread for trying to expose you."

You smirk. "Unfortunately Warlock's taken. I'll have to come up with one here soon, though."

Back at your apartment you both redress in civilian clothes before you tell Crystal to 'begone, woman'. She turns to you with hands on her hips and gives you a _look._ "Excuse me? You wanna fight?"

"Nah, but I need to go get you stuff for Valentine's Day and you coming with me kind of ruins things."

"James, we've only been dating for like two weeks. You don't have to get me anything!"

Pulling your jacket on you smirk at her. "That sounds like something someone would say when they forgot to buy a gift."

Turning so she doesn't meet your eye, you can tell you were spot-on. "Seriously, you don't have to—"

"I have an excellent idea for a little gift that will be both useful and (hopefully) cute. _You_ don't have to get me anything except your company on Monday." You stop for a second and add, "_And_ deciding on a place to eat that will have spaces available. That part I forgot."

"Hah! I'll find a place to eat and get reservations!" she crows, then squawks as you grab her in a hug and give her a kiss. She kisses back but then pushes away from you and gives you a smirk. "And maybe I'll get _you_ flowers and chocolate."

"I prefer dark chocolate and roses are _so _cliche," you declare grandly. "And not to change the subject, but I'm changing the subject—I'm gonna check in on that Merchant depot tonight. I'll check in with you before I go, and again after."

Your girlfriend gets up in your face. "Oh no, I'm coming with."

"Nothin' personal darlin', but you wear _bright friggin' white_ and I'm gonna be sneaking around in dark clothes."

"Ehh… lemme get back to you on that. I'll meet you back here after dinner?"

"Sure."

Finding an anklet at the Market wasn't difficult at all. Picking out charms is a little more difficult, if only because you don't consider Crystal a unicorn and sparkles kinda girl. You pick up a number of charms including a tiara, arrows that vaguely resemble the ones on her leotard, a heart, and a glass gem that you transfigure to more closely resemble the color of her powers. A bit of research allows you to enchant the anklet unbreakable and auto-resizing, while the individual charms get individual enchantments. You start with a shield, the emotion-shield, and the anti-nausea charm. You keep the glass gem in reserve for when you finally get around to researching portkeys.

It's a little after dark when Crystal shows back up at your apartment with a backpack full of clothes. "So I talked to my mom and—well, I talked to _Lady Photon_ and _Brandish_—and I was told that if I'm going to be 'traipsing around with random independents' I'm not allowed to wear my New Wave uniform anyway."

"Legal issues?"

She chuckles a bit. "I'll spare you the comments from Aunt Carol, but the short answer is 'if the PRT wants to bully you, cape law is screwed up enough they can because they have lawyers and deeper pockets'. Mainly it's a PR thing so that if something horrible happens it's not immediately blamed on New Wave." She shrugs sadly. "Ass-covering."

You shrug back at her. "I'm surprised you were allowed to come." You take the bag from off of her shoulder and cast the anti-nausea spell on her. "I'm gonna take you to my lair so we're doing things from a safer location."

"You…. You have a _lair?!"_ There's a full-force pout on her face. "_We_ don't have a lair and New Wave's been a team for forever!"

"No whiners allowed in Fort Kickass, dear."

"Zipping!" she makes the 'lips zipped' gesture and takes your hand.

You've blocked off the library and potions lab to keep her from being too inquisitive, and she flops down on your bed as you get in to your costume. "So what did you come up with for alternate costume ideas?"

When you're handed her phone you just stare for a moment. "This is anime. Are you telling me you wanna be an anime?"

Crystal laughs, "While mom and Aunt Carol were discussing things I talked with Amy. She suggested it when I told her I'd be out with you."

"Can I suggest pants, or at least non-ripped leggings or something?" You do some quick searching and get something slightly more practical, assuming you change things out for pants.

She nods and you have her put on the darker clothes she had chosen before transfiguring them into a decent blend of the two.

Pulling out a tube of black lipstick, your girlfriend informs you that you simply _must _send some pictures to Amy.

"Uh, not that I am complaining in the _slightest_, but I didn't take you as a black lipstick kinda girl."

Blotting it and checking it over in a mirror you conjured she turns and poses. "I'm not, it's Amy's." She pulls those beautiful, pouty lips back in a smile. "Are you saying you like it?"

"It is _totally _working for me." Now that you consider the first sentence and the healer's secret anime knowledge is known you get a mental picture of her smearing the lipstick on her own lips, blushing and squealing things about 'indirect kisses'. "So it's Amy's huh. Is she like a secret goth?"

"It's probably a reaction to having to wear a white robe all the time. She mentioned that she would have preferred both of you doing your dark coat rather than you changing over to white like her."

Hey look, a chance to make Worm-fandom level comments. "So I could charm her robe black and call her Gothacea?" You politely ignore the _snerk_ noise from your girlfriend. "Speaking of renames, now that you're in night mode are you—" deep voice time, "—_Laserscream?"_

Oh man, the dry-ass look you get. You have to take your mask off so you can match it with a cocked eyebrow and an assholish smirk. Crystal finally gives up and waves the phone at you, "Okay, that was actually pretty good. Now shaddup and strike a pose."

Transfiguring a little stand for her phone you take a number of pictures both separate and together before Crystal sends them off to Amy. You barely have time to undo the stand before she gets a text back and laughs. "She says 'tell him to lose the robes so I can see dat ass.'"

What the fuck, Amy? "Am I being _objectified_?" Nevertheless you pose coatless for a picture before getting ready again.

This time the message is a hasty photoshop in the vein of 'I can be yuor angle or your devil' with white-clad Laserdream on one side and 'Laserscream' on the other. "Oh my god, I'm going to smack that girl."

This is very much not the Panacea you knew from the first meeting. "Is she normally this much of a nut?"

"_No,_ she hasn't been like this for _years_ and as dumb as the pictures are, I'm loving the fact that she's doing it."

You smile as she finishes up another text and turns her attention back to you. "Alright, serious time. Here's how this is gonna go down—we're gonna pop to a lookout on the outside of the depot and make sure nothing major has changed. Once that's done I'll move us inside and we can see what we can see. I will make us transparent so it's harder for us to be seen, but I can't make us completely silent or we won't be able to talk to each other." Crystal nods and you both take the time to silence everything and she wraps her hair in a dark-colored scarf.

The lookout remains pest and Merchant free, but the 'abandoned' factory has easily triple the number of cars outside, most of them absolute shitheaps. You let Crystal know as you apparate in to the hidey-hole you had made last time.

As soon as you arrive there's yelling. It's quickly obvious that it's not _because_ of you, and it lets you find the source pretty easily.

That hair, that voice, those ridiculous fucking bolt-ons—that's Squealer, all right. She's in the middle of a full-volume argument with a number of other people. Being the only one quite that loud you can't make out what the others are saying, but 'my Skids', 'armor suits' and 'the Big One' comes up all in the course of about a minute.

Looking around there's close to a hundred people, most pretty grungy, but around where the Tinker is ranting there's a number of better-dressed people, including good ol' Shaggy Shepard. This… could get messy, or go super smooth. You huddle with Crystal and decide..

Both of you take some pictures and video of the area before you decide you need to discuss what to do next. You touch Crystal's arm and gesture out to the lookout that you came from before popping you back outside. "Well, I was hoping Squealer was there, but the rest of that horde is a complication."

"Let me guess, you have a plan."

"I have a _stupid_ plan," you state. "I have a liquid laughing gas that I could spread around, we can block the doors, call the PRT and let them sort things out from there." You shrug. "I only have a half-dozen bottles of it, and I'm not sure how it'd scale. Between that and attacking birds, freezing some of them in place and all of that we could keep them disoriented until backup arrives."

Crystal already has her phone dialing her mother as you've been talking. "Mom, get Aunt Carol and put me on speaker, there's a huge possibility here." A moment later she's laying out your plan to the leadership of New Wave and gesturing for your phone as well. She manages to keep up the conversation as she dials a number and lets it connect. "Hold on a second guys," she pulls your phone to her ear. "Amy, it's Crystal from Warlock's phone. He has some kind of laughing gas I want you to check over and see how safe it is. Talk to him." She shoves the phone back at you and dives back into the other conversation.

"Panacea?"

"Warlock!" There's a lilt to her voice when she says your name like this is the most interesting thing that's happened to her in ages. "So what's this gas and what are you planning to do with it?"

You keep a weather eye out for people leaving as you rattle off the plan and the potion as fast as possible. It sounds like she's moving around in the background and at one point you hear the echo of Lady Photon's part of the conversation as she goes downstairs.

"Gimme a second."

You look over to Laserdream who gives you a tentative thumbs up and mouths 'we'll talk'.

You can hear the smile in Amy's voice as she starts talking again. "Okay, get your gas potion thingy and get here as fast as possible. Bye!"

Crystal waves you over before you apparate. "Teleport in to the back yard, sliding door's open. Talk to Lady Photon, I'll be on speaker. Go."

Saving time, you apparate directly into the lab, grab the potions, and arrive at the Pelham house in perhaps half a minute. Lady Photon is sitting at the dining room table with a laptop and two phones. Yet again you get one handed to you so you pick it up and speak. "This is Warlock."

"Brandish. My sister is alerting the PRT and Laserdream will coordinate with them. My sister and I will arrive and stay back while you do whatever it is you do. I am not your lawyer, and it would be ethically dubious of me to be such when you are not a part of New Wave, so I will approach an attorney that deals with cape law to get you a meeting sometime this week. In general when dealing with the PRT or Protectorate be _polite_ but not deferential. No matter how rude they are _do not escalate_, they have PR people and you do not. Questions?"

"Can I record what I am doing legally?"

You hear what you think is a pleased sigh. "Yes, I don't have time to go in to the specific legalities of it, but when you are acting as a cape you can record yourself and your activities. Just releasing it randomly on PHO could be an issue, but keeping it for your own safety is fine. Now," her voice drops the clipped cadence she had been using, "Amy has all but demanded she go along with this to monitor the drug usage so that no one dies. She doesn't have ways to defend herself. Look out for her carefully, _please._"

Seems like Carol has some affection for her adopted daughter after all. "I will keep her safe."

"Good. Tell Sarah I will be there momentarily."

Lady Photon is already nodding when you turn to her and pokes the mute button on her phone. "I know. Panacea is upstairs, she'll be down in a second. I'm currently on a conference with Laserdream and Commander Templeton. Crystal has sent pictures and a location. PRT forces are at least forty-five minutes out. Once you have established some kind of hold on the building, Brandish and I will show up to liaison with the PRT and offer assistance, but it's going to be your show." She pauses as Amy thunders down the stairs with a backpack on and stops next to you, almost vibrating with excitement.

"Lemme see it!"

You hand over one of the potions bottles and she pops the cap just enough to swipe a finger on the inside. There's a lot of blinking and frowning before she finally pronounces the verdict. "Pretty damn safe. I have some suggestions on how to spread it once we get there and I see the layout of the place."

Lady Photon sighs and seems to look right through your mask. "All of your safety is the most important. I will keep Crystal up to date."

Amy grabs on and you apparate back to the rooftop. Crystal has hung up the phone and Amy immediately drops her backpack and starts pulling things out. "Can you change the color of my robe and make me clothes like you did Crystal?"

Laserdream shakes her head fondly as she looks at her cousin pulling an old robe on. "I didn't see anyone leave, but we should get back over there. What's the situation on that gas?"

Amy looks over a the huge building across from you. "Whatever that stuff is, I can't recreate it exactly, _but_ I'd like to suggest aerosolizing some ketamine to go along with it. Even in that huge space the two of them together would make everyone giggly and stupid." Now wrapped in a white robe she stands up and holds her arms out and ignores the stare from her cousin. "Do it."

You color-change the robe and transfigure her clothes to match Crystal's as the shorter girl pulls the hood over her face. Once you're done she slumps back to her knees and roots through the backpack and pulls out a huge bag of rice. "Fuel. So how're we going to do this?"

A quick hit of Legilimency tells you that Crystal knew that Amy could do things like this, but she's understandably shocked that you're being let in on it. Amy is nervous as hell, aroused, and is running mainly on adrenaline and making decisions based on feeling the rush of sensation. At this point you just need to ride the wave and make sure everyone comes out okay on the other side. "I'll enchant some cones that blow wind, we put them in bottles and blow the gas onto the mob. I'll hit us all with a spell so we don't breathe the fumes in. You do your magic with that rice. I'll put wards up so that people are unlikely to look and they won't be able to see through the grating. You two can work on gassing them and I'll run around outside and block the doors. When I get back in we monitor the situation until the calvary gets here. If there's a serious riot you both grab me and we get the fuck out quick." You get two nods, and you fish your shield necklace out. "Panacea, wear this, it'll create a shield for you. Three second recharge, don't go being crazy." You pause for a moment. "Also, let's record everything. Brandish gave her okay, and we can review it later. Good?" You take a moment to transfigure pockets in all of your clothes to stick your phones and run the record feature before refreshing the anti-nausea on everyone and apparating inside.

It has been perhaps five minutes total since you were last here. Now Squealer isn't yelling anymore, but she is doing rails of something off a table. There's some other drugs being hit, and the fancy fuckers have broken into three groups, one of which looks like they're about to continue the argument the Tinker was part of earlier. You let the girls continue to monitor as you transfigure the grating to solid steel and engrave a quick-and-dirty notice-me-not ward, followed by a shield enchant and a silencing spell. Taking some rubble you transfigure it into a number of cones with a gentle _ventus_ that they can plug into the necks of the bottles to disperse the potions. Amy does _something _with the rice and turns it into a slurry that she stuffs into yet another of the cones to mix with the rest of the drugs.

A couple of people start wandering towards an exit so you pull your wand and hit the doors in question with a muggle-repeller. "So how long until they start feeling it?"

Panacea giggles quietly as she watches her cousin aim another potion bottle. "That stuff you have is pretty powerful, not really long at all. Five minutes maybe?" She gestures to her slurry. "This stuff should hopefully get to the level they'll be uncoordinated so they won't try the doors any more."

Crystal looks up and taps an earpiece in. "PRT ETA thirty minutes. They're trying to get some other teams routed here sooner."

"They have a bank of monitors and cameras so I need them pretty blitzed before I hit the outside guards." You keep yourself from fretting nervously by disillusioning yourself, appareling down to the floor and vanishing tires and placing sticking and disillusionment charms on any open weapons you see. You also try a _confundus_ or two and ward off a few more people from leaving. Perhaps they're squibs and the muggle-repeller isn't working on them?

While you're down there you manage to find:

[X][Loot] A well-dressed man and a few moments to brain-dump him

[X][Loot] A well-dressed woman and a few moments to brain-dump her

Matthew 'Diego' Garcia is Shaggy's left hand man. The former Air Force Loadmaster has never had problems getting his hands dirty, whether that involves smuggling or murder. Currently he oversees much of the drug smuggling that gets the good stuff into Brockton for later distribution. You're able to pick out four major locations that store the bulk of the drugs. Only one is an actual warehouse, the others are businesses or residential homes. Typically there aren't large amounts stored for long periods of time; drugs sell fast in the Bay.

One of the other things that Diego had been tasked with has been to monitor the use of Tinker-drugs on the Merchants themselves. Yes, they started selling Tinked-up versions of the common drugs they sell, but other, more specialized drugs had been given for testing purposes. The most recent was called 'Red Sun' and gave subjects incredible strength and durability (Brute ~2-3) for 3-4 hours. Downsides included a fugue state lasting at least 6 hours and increasing on repeated use.

He isn't the main guy in charge of money issues, but he does know of a couple of accounts he can draw against, and has two bolt holes with guns, cash, and a means of escape.

'Sia' is the working name of Tammy Roche, the woman in charge of the soft-side of the Merchants. They don't do sex slaves, but they _do_ partner with escorts and hookers to get their johns hooked on drugs. And the Merchants get a cut of the profit on all of it.

She knows names and dirty little secrets, and has video evidence of much of it as well. Some of it is stored on a external drive hidden in an apartment she rents under a different name, some is only kept in her head.

…did you know that the mayor enjoys rimming girls? Sia does. She's even pretty sure that Lung hired a black girl one night for some very rough but within-the-rules sex.

She also knows a few dirty secrets about one or two highly-placed people in the PRT and the Federal Prosecutor's office that will likely see her released with the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. At least if they don't want their pegging, findom, and pissplay fetishes to come to light.

Finally on one of your trips back up, Amy nudges you and points down where Shaggy and crew are. The burgeoning fight has cooled off, people are sitting back and lighting joints, nearby someone's giggling. "They're feeling it. You're fine, go."

Popping back to the lookout on the roof you hit yourself with a notice-me-not and disillusionment before popping closer and starting to stalk the people left outside to be sentries. Most of them are single guards near various doors, but a two of the cars have people in them too.

You quickly find a rhythm, smokejumping behind a guard and body-binding them before you fully reform, then sticking their feet to the ground. After that you can _incarcerous_ them with rope that's matched to their clothes colors, stun them, and stick any weapons to the ground. The whole thing only takes a few seconds each and you leave a trail of statues behind you before turning to the first car with people in it.

The people sitting in the cars are probably supposed to be patrolling or at least keeping a look out, but given the smoky looks they're hotboxing instead. Rather than risk blowing out the glass and not hitting them you vanish a door and hit them with a the same flurry of charms.

With all of the people rendered helpless you use transfiguration to raise walls in front of all of the human-sized doors, then color them to look like the doors themselves. You'd disillusion them but the last thing you want is for the PRT to get an inkling that you can go invisible. The larger rolling doors you throw ten-foot walls in front of and likewise hide them before calling this done for now.

Back inside you find the sisters chuckling over something and you're immediately worried that they've been effected by one of the drugs floating around. "Uh, ladies?"

Panacea waves you over to her and scoops up a small amount of goo before forming it in to a rock-like thing. Leaning over the side she chucks it at one of the milling figures below where it hits them and explodes into nothingness. A second later he and everyone around him cover their noses and start the most awkward and uncoordinated slap fight you've ever seen. Honestly, most people are staggering around and getting in little scuffles or rolling on the floor in laughter rather than even trying to move to the doors.

Laserdream taps her earbud again and gestures the two of you to keep quiet. "Yes, all of the exits are blocked and everyone inside seems to be on drugs. Five minutes? Okay, I'll send Warlock out to meet up with them." Muting it again she turns back to you. "A small group that was patrolling ABB territory will be arriving shortly. Could you meet them out by the other building?"

"Sure, I'll do the light in my hand thing again." You wait for Crystal to relay that information before popping over and smokejumping to the far side of the building. Not even five minutes later two PRT vans roll up, foam turrets swiveling to track you.

A squad of four dismounts from the nearest van, guns not _quite_ aiming at you. The middle figure stomps up and you get a glimpse at a velcro badge that says 'Menendez'. "Alright kid, what kind of shitshow do you have here?"

Frowning behind your mask you do your best to push a legilimency probe through the matte, blank helmet. You manage one after a moment and get the sense that this person just plain dislikes the fact that you exist. Lovely, he and the director are like two pigs in a poke.

"No shitshow at all, actually. All sentries have been knocked out, everyone inside is having a drug-fueled party. Once you decide how you want them I'll drive them out."

You're not sure how someone in a full-face mask can look skeptical, but maybe it's just because he has more practice than you. "Right, sure. Here's how it's gonna go you idiot-"

"I think you would do well to listen to the person who made this capture possible, Captain," a voice says as Lady Photon touches down carrying the ball that is her sister. Brandish pops up a moment later and her only reaction to Menendez' existence is a displeased 'Oh.'

The officer stiffens and turns back to you woodenly. "Fine, you say all the doors are blocked?"

Well, he's gonna be a bitch, but you can deal. Inclining your head slightly you pick up the thread of conversation. "Yes. All doors are blocked. There are somewhere between fifty and a hundred Merchants inside, including Squealer. No sign of Mush. It seems to be their vehicle depot, there are multiple tinker-vehicles inside. I have disabled a number by damaging tires." You pause for a moment and check your phone and discreetly tell the girls to stop drugging them. "Laserdream reports that they still seem unaware of anything going on outside. If you have enough containment foam I could raise walls outside one of the doors for you to shelter behind and you could disable them as they leave."

The PRT agent's shoulders relaxes fractionally, like he suddenly realized you're not going to propose going in guns blazing. "That… could work," he admits grudgingly. "What kind of weapons did you see?"

"Mostly handguns, perhaps a dozen other weapons, AKs and a submachine gun or two."

The second squad has dismounted and they speak quietly for a moment before one of them pulls a whiteboard out of the van and you get down to planning.

Honestly, in the end this was less like a fight are more like shooting—well, drugging—fish in a barrel. You erect some chest-height walls for the PRT officers to shelter behind and by the time the rest of the detachment sets up there's a containment foam killing field waiting outside of the large rolling doors.

Leaving Brandish and Lady Photon to hold down the fort you find the girls peering over the edge of the platform. Panacea looks over worriedly. "Everything's wearing off, I'm surprised they haven't noticed already. Please tell me they're ready."

You put your hand on her shoulder. "They're ready. Laserdream, you'll blast open the far doors and then we help herd them out." You hand over a 1950's Buck Rodgers-esque raygun to the healer. "Now, can you do an evil laugh?"

The 'go' signal from the PRT coincides with Laserdream pulverizing the big doors. Moments later a magically-amplified Panacea does a witchy cackle as beams of light lance down and startle the gangers into flight.

Laserdream does most of the herding, flying around and using low-powered blasts to cow the majority of the Merchants into attempting to flee. Panacea proves to be a pretty decent shot with the stinging-spell enchanted gun you gave, keeping anyone from getting into the suits of armor or invisible vans.

You fall upon anyone who still has a working gun and dares to point them at either of the girls. When you aren't, you use cannon-blast charms to startle them and freezing charms and banishing charms to slide their asses out the door.

The actual rout only takes about ten minutes, but it's very busy. You sweep the place with _Homenum Revelio_ and have to root out a couple of hide-and-seek champions before you take the girls and report in to Commander Templeton.

The leader of the PRT detachment is an older woman with a steel-grey swath of hair along her left side. "Warlock, that's everyone?"

"Yes, the last one had climbed up under a truck and was hiding along the driveshaft. You will want to sweep the place yourself, of course, but I'm confident he was the last one."

Smiling a bit the woman gestures to Carol. "Since it's all over but the bagging and tagging I won't hold you very much longer. Most of the documentation has already been filed out while I was en-route, and the rest we went over while you cleaned up. Look it over and make sure it seems accurate." When Brandish gives you an approving nod you walk with the PRT commander over to a mobile HQ version of their vans. She grabs a sheaf of paper off a tiny printer and you thumb through them quickly.

Nothing listed is wrong, and while the whole thing is short on detail, that's perfectly okay. "Looks fine."

"Great. Listen, you've been much better about this than any of the other capes I've dealt with, even New Wave. Would you be willing to exchange contact info and throw me notice if you come across another major operation like this?"

[X][Templeton] Yes, exchange contact info

"I suppose. If you call and anyone who isn't me answers, just say you're my sugar momma."

Templeton's eyes narrow a bit. "Oh no, I prefer my boys _pretty_. That metal mask just wouldn't look right crushed between my thighs."

You lean back and fan yourself. "Wow, right for the gut punch."

The older woman's smile gains fangs. "Nice to know the ol' gal's still got it." She hands you a very official PRT card with her work contact information on it. That it just _happens_ to have a different phone number with 'burner' written on the back means nothing, you're sure.

Taking a pen you scribble your Warlock phone and email address on a scrap of paper that gets tucked away immediately. "As a warning, I don't keep my cape phone turned on or on me regularly…."

The PRT commander nods. "Didn't expect you to, you seem to have a decent head on your shoulders. Use my contact info if you want to give me a tipoff. If I contact you then things have gone tits up enough that I'm not expecting a Hail Mary to land." She offers a handshake that you return before gesturing you out of the van. "Go take your pictures and flirt with the girls before you get out of here. You've given me enough to keep me busy for days. I expect there'll be a request to speak with you coming your way via Brandish by mid-week. It's understood that you might not want to, but if you do show up to answer some questions about how you learned of this it would make prosecuting all the gangers much easier for the DA."

"I'll probably be retaining a lawyer just for things like this, so I'll take it under advisement and speak with them about it."

"Well hell, then you're smarter and better-prepared than ninety-nine percent of the independants I've dealt with. Go on, get out of here."

You and the girls had taken pictures all during this operation (yeah, operation. That made it sound cooler) but the best one was the selfie with Squealer getting loaded into a wagon in the background. You might get that one printed out and frame it, honestly.

Despite her saying that she doesn't want to hold you much longer it's after midnight before you manage to apparate away with two goth girls hanging from your arms. Amy gets dropped off at the Pelham's and you and Crystal share a pretty chaste shower before flopping in to bed.

In one night you've (hopefully) broken the back of the Merchants. Yes, Mush is still out there, and who knows how many of the bigwigs weren't around, but the ninety-three Merchants (and Squealer) that got rounded up tonight may very well have ended this gang as a viable threat.

AN:

**You've done serious damage to one of the Bay's major gangs. In your sleep you pull upon Potterverse fanon once again. What new magic do you learn?**

[X][Bonus] The basics of Ritual Magic


	25. Sun, Feb 13

You wake up at an atrocious hour (7am) with your girlfriend drooling on your arm. You should get up and jog with Taylor. You know you should, and yet you really just want to go back to sleep.

Summoning forth your mighty willpower you scratch your balls and manage to get your arm away from Crystal and roll out of bed. You're part way through finding your jogging sweats when Crystal cracks a blue eye and grunts at you. Luckily you can read her mind, because you don't speak cavewoman.

"I'm going jogging."

_Grngl?_

"Well no, I'm not looking forward to it, but A) the stamina helps, and B) I encountered this girl who I think is being bullied at school jogging and I'd feel bad if I didn't make the occasional attempt at offering an ear."

_Mrbndl?_

"If you actually get up, yes."

You're treated to the glorious sight of Crystal throwing off the covers and stretching in only panties, her perky breasts highlighted by the sun peeking through the blinds. You hit the both of you with breath freshening charms and give her a kiss once she manages to get out of bed.

Wrapping her arms around you and clearly still trying to wake up she starts talking into your neck. "'m gonna need workout clothes. C'n you make em?'

It takes some searching on the web to get a look she's into as you transfigure her some workout clothes, but end up using a support charm for her chest. Apparently you can't get the right combination of 'support' and 'comfort' with the sports bra.

While you're doing that you get to explain what exactly you've been doing with the jogging and meeting Taylor. You don't phrase it as 'I'm trying to calm the Queen of Escalation down' or anything, but a run-through of how you met her while jogging and what she's mentioned to you works pretty well.

"Oh. My. God, James."

She sounds _so_ exasperated with you. "What, dear?"

"Maybe you _are_ from one of Amy's animes. First, the hungover Susan who you nursed back to health, then Soon-Yi and her gunshot. Do you search out broken birds to heal?"

Huh. "Not purposefully?"

Crystal leads the way outside and you start off slow so you can continue the conversation. "And honestly in a way, Amy."

Huh? "Huh?"

"You pointed out problems and how she was all weird on our first date, you've been really nice in both forms…" she trails off for a second, "actually, I think she might have a thing for Warlock. Well for both of you."

"Oh, that's… kinda weird."

She huffs. "What's weird is her being interested in you at all, I had her pegged as gay. Don't worry about it, just continue to be nice. If it gets weird I'll talk to her."

You have doubts about how that'll go, but 'hey, maybe I just need to gently mindfuck your cousin to fix her' probably wouldn't go over well.

So, a short while later you find yourself pounding the pavement alongside your girlfriend, both of you hopped up on magic.

"This feels like cheating."

"I could cancel the spells if you want," you offer.

"I didn't say it felt _bad_, so don't you do a damn thing."

This morning when Taylor sees you she starts to wave, sees Crystal and visibly flinches back, pulling her hand down. She also slows down and the two of you have to backtrack a bit to get her to fall in to step with you.

Crystal gives you a nod like she wants you to cast all of the spells you're using on her on Taylor, which makes the fact that you've already done it amusing.

Introductions are somewhat strained, Taylor withdraws into herself as you introduce your girlfriend, but Crystal is pretty good at teasing bits of information out of the younger girl.

You dip into Taylor's mind and there's a heavy background thread of paranoia, a feeling that you know she's a cape and brought your cape girlfriend to protect you, but that tapers off into confused longing as she gets pulled in to the banter that you and Crystal share.

After ten minutes or so, though, your girl has gotten the younger cape drawn into a conversation ahead of you and you're reduced to following behind them. Not that seeing her tight, athletic bubble butt is in any way a punishment as it bounces along in front of you. You do find it amusing to suddenly be the one on the outside, but that's not so bad; Taylor really needs a female friend, and Crystal is probably better than Lisa.

You come up on the turn where you and Taylor normally diverge and get waved up to join the girls. "You head on back, Taylor and I are going to chat a bit more."

"Ooh, can I get in on the girl talk if I put my hair in pigtails?"

Crystal gives a wide smile. "You mean handlebars?"

There's choking sounds over from Taylor's direction but you ignore that to step in to the blonde's personal space and slide her a copy of your key. "I'll be in my lair, text my work phone." You kiss her and she nips at your lip as you pull back. "Have fun at the tea party, girls!"

You actually jog the rest of the way back to your apartment rather than apparating. A nice shower and you're over at your lair.

You were going to work on an enchanted necklace with the physical and emotional shields for Panacea, but first you take the time to start unpacking the mental boxes that you put the brain dumps in. There's also information about ritual magic clogging up your brainmeats so a couple of notebooks come out and you busy yourself with taking notes about Diego and Sia, as well as writing down things you'll need and some sketches for your ritual space. You also fire up your Warlock phone (Warphone?) and have a text from last night hanging around.

P: Hey, thanks for letting me contribute tonight

P: and how long will these clothes last?

P: they're pretty great

P:

…well shit. Don't say too much about the picture, but be polite.

You are quite welcome. :W

You did great :W

Clothes are permanent. I can change them back :W

If you want. :W

By the way, I'd like to stop in and talk to NW :W

LP and B suggested I do it at some point. :W

I'll be available in the afternoon if they have time. :W

Leaving that possible bear trap alone, you head to where you left the trunk so you can start looking for a ritual dagger—or an athame if you're feeling fancy. With all of the bloodletting that's involved in rituals, something with safety charms that will keep nerve damage from being an issue and heal afterwards is an excellent idea.

You find yourself standing in the room, which really should be more startling than it is. Maybe you can't startle yourself?

"So… we don't explode if we see each other."

"Nope."

Seeing the smirk you so often feel on your own face being smirked at you is quite a sight. "So are we going to say it?"

"We are."

You point at each other and exclaim in stereo, "My own clone! Now neither of us will be virgins!"

"Nice," you chorus. You get a high-five (and don't explode, so that's nice) as you exit and turn back to loot the trunk.

What you find is a leather roll that has an obviously magically-formed dagger of obsidian with silver wire wrapping around the hilt, and laying next to it is a time-turner. A beat-to-all-hell time turner, but one nevertheless.

Ah, fuck it.

You give one spin and you're still in the room, but you can hear yourself over in your main study just as you were a few moments ago. You'd guess one turn is roughly fifteen minutes?

"So… we don't explode if we see each other."

"Nope."

Seeing the smirk you so often feel on your own face being smirked at you is quite a sight. "So are we going to say it?"

"We are."

You point at each other and exclaim in stereo, "My own clone! Now neither of us will be virgins!"

"Nice." You high-five and walk out of the room to place the athame in the ritual space and to allow yourself time to find the time turner in the first place. That… could get weird. Probably for the best that one time you're you and one time you're Warlock or something.

You feel something _click_ back into place right as you probably spun the dial back in the other room, like there was a part of you that was missing and is back. Blinking a bit you head back in to your main room and check over the sketches of the ritual circle you're planning on using. It's super important that you get it right, so you're making a couple of sketches and going over them first before you carve them out. At least you can use magic to do it.

It's been about about an hour and a half since you got back when you get a text from Crystal telling you that she's 'in location'. You pop back to find her fresh out of the shower and lounging on your bed, sans bra. You could get dangerously used to that. "Everything okay?"

"As okay as could be, I think there's some long-running issues. I'm gonna keep in touch with her and see how it goes." She sighs. "Might need Warlock to make an appearance, my being an out cape seemed to confuse her."

You flop down on the bed and snuggle. "I want to enchant something protective for Amy. I can do the aura resistance thing and put it on something that isn't clothes—since y'know, two hoodies mysteriously showed back up in my dirty clothes pile and a couple of my unshielded flannel shirts disappeared around the same time."

"Oh yeah…"

"I haven't noticed any underwear disappearing, let's keep it that way, okay?"

You get a scrunched up nose and a gagging noise. "Gross, dude." She transitions into a side-eye, "So this enchanted stuff, could I like…" She sees you staring at her and trails off. "I'm ruining a surprise, aren't I."

"Mmm."

"Wanna give it to me now instead?" her voice lifts hopefully.

"I might give it to you _next_ week instead at this rate."

"Rude," she huffs, and rolls to her feet. "Can you make some generic things like that shield necklace of yours and we'll test them later? I can ask Amy what she'd be willing to wear. She doesn't do much in the way of jewelry, like maybe earrings."

"Sure, let's head over to the lair."

"He has a frickin' _lair," _she mutters to herself as she shimmies into a T-shirt. One of yours, of course.

Back at Wizard Central you check your phone and have gotten a response from Amy. She says you're good for 3-ish, just to text beforehand and teleport into the back yard. You take the time to slide the phone over to Crystal and tell her to read the previous parts of the conversation. She does as you go off to find some silverware to transfigure and you hear a sing-songed 'thir~sty' from the other room.

When you walk back in the blonde cape gives you a wry smile. "I don't know if you should be allowed to be alone with Amy for your own health. I'm not sure if she knows what she wants, she's likely to knock you out and molest your sleeping body."

"You're making her sound like she's crazy, yanno."

"I think she's just feeling secure about you and is willing to try flirting. It's still okay for now, but keep me informed and no kissing."

Sitting down across from her at the worktable you throw her a shrug. "Okay, one, I'm dating you and Warlock isn't dating anyone, and B, how would I kiss her with a full face mask?"

"Dork. Speaking of dating, crazy women and stuff like that, did you get anything for the S Klub?"

"I made cookies, but I was gonna check with you first."

Crystal floats part way across the table to kiss you firmly and look you right in the eyes. "James, it's okay to be friends with them. You can hang out with them. Just don't _dick_ them. I trust you."

"Thank you dear."

She beams at you and floats back down. "So, necklaces?"

You nod. "Yeah, I guess. I'll do a shield and an aura shield?"

"Make one with a charm like your mask and the other as one of those birds you did."

A short transfiguration later and you have two silver necklaces with charms. Crystal pockets them for later and after grabbing some lunch she takes you through the process of registering for PHO as 'Totally_Not_A_Wizard' and getting verified. You have to throw on your costume and pose with a dated sign, but that's easily done on a rooftop with the Rig in the background and today's paper. With a bit of Tin_Mother brown nosing, you even get a (Verified Warlock) tag to go along with your (Verified Cape).

There are close to twenty threads going about various parts related to the Downtown brawl and last night's Merchant mop-up. You also have your own thread with your impromptu press conference and links to all of the other places you've shown up recently. Still, you resist the temptation to post and make jokes. Now that you have an account you have all the time in the world to post. Besides, it's almost time to meet the parents (again) (in costume).

Crystal heads off to show up early, she'd been warned of what's going on via a text from her mother not long after your arrival in your lair. You take the time to find and use a charm to polish the floor in the ritual room and transfer the sketched circle to markings on the floor. Assuming nothing goes tits up this evening you'll come back and carve it out and it'll be ready to run a test ritual tomorrow—well, Tuesday, most likely. You hope you'll be busy with other things tomorrow.

A little after three you text Amy and get an 'OK' back. Popping over to the Pelhams' backyard you're let in and find Old Wave sitting in the dining room. Kid Wave is nowhere to be seen, although you feel three presences upstairs.

Manpower gives you a head nod as you move to stand across the table from them, as do Lady Photon and Brandish. Flashbang is… present, at least.

"Ladies, gentlemen, would you like to begin the interrogation?" you ask with a smile in your voice.

Peeking in heads, Mark is a write-off, completely in his own fogged world, Neil wants to see what you can do power-wise and generally doesn't care much about the legal portions. Even Sarah is thinking more about what's going on upstairs than the talk that her sister is about to give.

The look Brandish gives you is as dry as the Sahara. "Just sit." Once you're seated she looks at the other adults and sighs. "I'm not going to go into a long speech, because it seems no one cares. As I said yesterday I cannot be your lawyer—it's nothing against you, but I already handle New Wave's legal issues, and if you and New Wave ever had a dispute then my handling of your legal work would cause problems.

"With that said, I've spoken to Quinn Calle, who is a gigantic pain in the ass, but knows his cape law. I will remain the contact for the PRT until _after_ you meet with him and tell me that you have decided to retain him as a lawyer. You will need to pay him, he will discuss hourly with you." She passes over a print-out of an email with your appointment on Wednesday at 1.

You happen to have your programming class at the time, but maybe with your time-turner you can blow some minds. Taking the document you give Brandish a nod. "Thank you for what you have done so far, and I completely understand not being able to represent me." Leaning back a bit you also spread your hands. "So go ahead and ask, but I expect smooth jazz and some wine before I start taking my clothes off."

Carol is actually the one who snorts at that, while Neil starts imitating Barry White. Sarah waves them all down and starts ticking things off with her fingers. "You can heal, control birds, teleport, raise the earth, freeze people…"

You can hear feet clatter down the steps, and right as they're about to come into view you bob your head. "Yeah. I'm a wizard."

There's a _thump_ where you're pretty sure that Crystal ran into Amy, and a bunch of incredulous stares from everyone, even Mark. The girls shuffle in and Amy gives you the side-eye while Crystal just looks like she wants to facepalm.

"Um…."

You chuckle and take your hat off. "I do wizard themed things. What else do you call a person who does all of the things you pointed out? It's a weird conglomeration of abilities otherwise."

Neil's mouth opens and closes while Carol just sits back with her arms crossed and is obviously mentally picking that little nugget of logic over. Once again Sarah takes control. "Alright fine, let's go mess up the nice grass in the back yard instead."

You end up throwing spells at Manpower for a bit to get a handle on comparative strengths. A single stunner does jack-all to his electromagnetic shield, although knocking him around by banishing him, dumping him in the ground with an _orbis_ and similar indirect spells work fine. You're unwilling to whip out explosive curses, even if you would be able to reattach anything that fell off.

On the defensive end you show that you can indeed shield yourself, and that said shield actually stands up to a moderately-powerful hit from your girlfriend. You can even continue to channel power into the spell and resist a continuous blast for a while. Once some baselines are established so everyone knows you're not going to get completely smeared by a stray shot you play cat-and-mouse with New Wave, mainly tagging people with paint spells.

The most important find of the day is that if you have a moment to establish a legilimency connection you can pull off a Snape and know what they're going to do before _they_ know they're going to do it. It lead to a wonderful standoff between you and Crystal as she tried to tag you and you managed to deflect her low-powered shots with _expellarmuses._ You have a sneaking suspicion she's gonna get you back somehow for hitting her with a _flipendo_ and almost making her sick.

At the end of the training session you manage to smooth over the churned up dirt and get most of the grass clumps planted again, which makes both Sarah and Neil happy.

The last half-hour or so before you leave for the evening has you sending your videos over to Amy, who jumped at the chance to comb through them and make gifs and video clips for you to post later. You had the time to verify that nothing of your contact with either of the Merchants was caught on video, and Amy's more likely to ask you about anything she sees than go running to Sarah or Carol, so you're not too worried.

After leaving the Pelhams' you manage to get the ritual space carved with a traditional circle motif. It's large enough that you could easily fit ten people inside with arms spread, so you shouldn't have any issues with space.

Crystal doesn't spend the night with you although you text back and forth; New Wave continued to hang out after you were gone and Vicky came back from her patrol with the Wards. You do get a few goodnight kiss pictures sent to you though, and you're looking forward to Valentine's Day tomorrow.


	26. Valentine's Day Special (Feb 14)

You fire off a text to the S Klub after your first class of the morning wishing them a happy Valentine's day and offering cookies and get a variety of reactions, most of which seem like the girls drank a little too much. You find your way over to their hallway not too long after with coffees and cookies stacked on top of each other.

Everyone ends up in Susan and Sarah's room and if not for the faint hint of guilt you see in Susan's eyes it's like you'd never left. You've seen Sarah in class and chatted a bit, of course, but the group texts had been getting fewer and farther between.

It turns out that all of the girls—minus Karen, who apparently has a boyfriend—did some pre-Single's Day drinking and managed to go a little overboard. Your new and improved Magic Hands(tm) get all of them feeling better and more awake before you start handing out treats.

You don't hold back the self-satisfied smirk when the first moans happen right after they bite in to still-warm cookies. It's nice to catch up in person, and you dispense hugs liberally. Savannah for one leans up against you for a while as she nibbles on her cookie. "You tell your girlfriend that she can bring Amy around if she needs a break. I've told her before, but maybe she'll actually do it if you say somethin' too."

"I will. Amy's doing a bit better supposedly, but hanging out couldn't hurt."

As you go to take your leave you get another round of hugs and cheek kisses. There's a wave of texts afterwards as well, and you and Crystal are invited to hang out with the girls on Wednesday.

You busy yourself with preparations for the cleansing ritual that you plan to do on Tuesday while Crystal is in her English class, but time it just right so that you're there to meet her with a dozen crimson roses and handmade _bouchon_ when she exits. Her smile is so wide it threatens to split her face as she takes the flowers and gives you a passionate kiss.

"Did you make these?"

"Yep, it's a family recipe. So are we still on for this evening?"

The majority of Crystal's attention is on the food, but she hums in affirmation. "So how chocolaty are these?"

Your chuckle doesn't deter her from taking a bite of one and melting into your arms. "Those are dangerous."

"So can I make a request for what you wear this evening?"

This hum is blissed-out, "Sure."

"I suggest bare legs, it'll help with your other gift."

That piques her interest, but you arrive at her other class and she doesn't get a chance to follow up.

Your final class of the day is Cape 101, and you expected perhaps a bit of attitude from Vicky, but instead she's a somewhat-morose lump with a leaky aura. You lean over to Crystal to get the scoop, and it turns out that Dean was being a thoughtful guy and had candy for all of the girls that orbited Vicky at lunch and Vicky ended up making a snarky comment that got a disappointed look from her boyfriend.

"Is Dean actually mad or is she overreacting?"

The flat look from your girlfriend explains everything. Still, you're kind of a gentleman as well, so before class ends you surreptitiously transfigure a rose and box up some of the spare cookies you kept.

Vicky slowly packs up as class lets out, so you have plenty of time to crouch down next to her desk. "Victoria," her head shrinks into her shoulders and you reconsider. "Vicky…"

Looking up at you she blinks when you hand her the flower and food. "Happy Valentine's Day."

Glory Girl makes a little wounded sound and you shift to touching her force field over her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Crystal swoops in and you hear the same story from Vicky's perspective. She knows she overreacted, but she can't see that she's overreacting _now_ either. Finally you sit on the desk and look at the cousins. "Look, all you need to do is apologize sincerely, and when he goes to open his mouth jam a cookie in it."

Vicky laughs and hurries to cover her own mouth before she sprays crumbs out. "I don't think that'll work."

"I'm a guy, Dean's a guy. It'll work out fine."

This time you both get a hug from the Dallon girl before she flies off. Crystal leans into you. "Thank you for being so nice about it."

"She's gotten a lot better about her aura. That was always my main complaint about her. Other than that I hope she and Dean smooth things over." You kiss the side of her head and nudge her with your hip. "I'll change and meet you at your room in a bit?"

Crystal pivots into the sky, kisses you and flits off, which is a good enough answer.

Dinner is a nice little place that Neil apparently suggested. It has decent privacy that you improve with a _muffliato._ Crystal's in a little black dress with some middling-height heels that put her up with you although you've caught her using her flight once or twice to keep from stumbling.

"I would have suggested cooking dinner, but at least this way PHO won't think that I'm only dating you to have my wicked way with you."

She rolls her eyes. "Those people, god they're irritating. I think the latest is that you're corrupting me for…. some reason? I think my eyes glazed over when I tried to read the post."

Conversation stays light for a while before she stops in the middle of a comment. "Oh! Amy said she'd gone through all of the pictures and videos and things. She picked out a number of nice shots and made some animated gifs and video clips for you." Taking a sip of her drink she points a finger. "However, she probably made captions. Watch out for those, they are like weird internet memes you have to be six layers deep in PHO to understand. There's a reason I've banned her from making captions and memes with pictures of me, she has the _weirdest_ sense of humor."

"Maybe I'll let her loose on my thread. I guess I'll—well, Warlock—will text her tomorrow or Wednesday and set something up?"

"She'd love something to do other than healing and homework I'm sure. Maybe you could even give her some of your cookies."

"Dear, Warlock doesn't bake, I do."

"Ooh, crap, right. Uh, get her something for a late Valentine's present?"

"I'll try to work something out. In the meantime I have more cookies at home that can go to her, but only if you promise to actually give them to her. Like, I'll totally check up on you." You smirk at her crossed arms and overblown pout, "That doesn't work on me at all. I'll call your mother and ask."

"Don't you _dare!"_ she laughs.

Back at your apartment, you bow Crystal through the door and she turns back to you with her skirt swirling around her legs. "So do I finally get this thing you were going to give me?"

"I'm pretty sure I said _next_ week because you're a fun-ruiner." You laugh at her pout and point behind her. "Go take those heels off and sit on the bed."

A few moments later you settle across from her with a small box and try to coax her feet into your lap. Over her objections of them 'being stinky', you hit them with a cleaning charm that apparently tickles and manage to corral them.

"So spoiler alert, I enchanted something for you." Your gentle smile gets a bit of a blush on the bridge of her nose and you take the time to pop open the jewelry box, "It's a charm anklet, so that it won't get in the way when you wear your costume."

Taking the gold chain out you fasten it around her right leg and lift it up to point to the charms. "The tiara gives you a shield like the necklaces to protect your pretty face, the arrows shield your beautiful mind, and the heart keeps you from being sick, so I can teleport you around more often." You lean forward a bit and kiss her ankle where the fine gold chain sits. "Each of the charms can be detached if you want to, or to give them to someone else. The chain itself will resize and can't be used to bind you, and only you or I can remove it." You think of your study plans for the week. "I already have ideas about adding to it with more soon."

Crystal's blue eyes are suspiciously shiny. "Oh, James…" she pulls her leg closer to look at the charms and her skirt pools around her waist showing you some very skimpy and sexy panties. You start getting hard immediately, your length pressing again her left foot. She flexes it against you and breaks off her examination to rub her sole against the straining fabric experimentally. "Are you getting hard from my feet?"

You cough into your hand and point to her panties. "Not originally, but I am now."

Both of you are looking into the other's eyes as your blonde lover extends her other leg and you turn your head just enough to kiss her ankle again. She pulls it back and has it join in on the stroking. "Get—" she licks her lips as her flush extends down to her collarbones. "Get your cock out, James."

You pop the button and zipper on your slacks and fish yourself out of your confining pants. Crystal's eyes finally leave yours as she carefully positions the soles of her feet on either side of your dick and starts stroking slowly. "Do you have lube?"

A muttered spell conjures plenty on both your shaft and her feet and she immediately resumes her slow slide. "God, your cock's so hot. Does it feel good?"

You bark out a startled laugh. "Yeah, actually." She traps the head in the web between her big and second toe and strokes faster with her free foot. "Holy shit!"

Now your girlfriend's eyes are wide in interest as she starts to experiment—she tickles your balls with her slick toes, and creates a constant stroking as she switches feet back and forth.

Crystal has an amazed look as she settles on trapping your cock, her left foot along the underside and the soft sole of her right stroking you from base to head. "I hadn't ever thought about doing this before." With her ability to fly she's perfectly positioned to use both feet with no balance problems and really starts taking advantage.

You never really considered footjobs as a thing, but this is honestly pretty hot, especially how Crystal is getting in to experimenting. "But you're not getting much out of it," you breathe. You push some magic into your shaft and her reaction is immediate.

Her toes flex, the bottom ones tickling your balls and one hand flies down to her panties. "Fuck, that feels… it's like a direct line to my pussy." Her fingers drift up to the waistband of her panties.

"Crystal!" you snap, giving her a sharp smile. "No touching yourself."

"But!"

"No, only the magic I'm channeling and what you're doing to me."

Biting her lip she slowly pulls her hands back. "Really?"

You pump a bit more magic and flex your hips. "Really. Are you gonna be able to make me cum? If I don't, you don't." you ask tauntingly.

Her strokes come faster and smoother now and there's a light shining in her eyes at the challenge. "I am."

You raise an eyebrow at her and she tickles your balls again.

"In fact…" She pitches her voice down to something more sultry. "James, you're gonna cum for me, you're gonna cum all over my feet. If you do I'll—I'll lick your cum off my own toes. And then you're gonna bend me over this bed and fuck me until I can't do anything but moan your name.

"But none of that's gonna happen until you cum for me." Her breathing is ragged as she continues, "Cum on my feet, baby."

You push gently into Crystal's mind and while she's enjoying the foot play a bit, she's _really_ getting off on the realization that you are allowing and encouraging experimentation in bed. There's a litany of past boyfriends playing in the back of her head and how she never felt comfortable trying anything because they'd leak things to the press. _You_, though, she thinks she can trust. Maybe even in time… she doesn't think the word, but the feelings are there.

You're hardly the kind of person to deny her some harmless experimentation, and this new kink doesn't feel _bad_, so you increase the charge in your cock and focus her attention back on what she's doing. She's on the ragged edge of cumming herself and desperately speeds up even more. "James, I want it, cum for me, _please."_

The desire in her voice is what tips you over the edge. Throwing your head back you groan and cum, the upwelling of magic dragging Crystal along with you.

A moment later when you've recovered you look down and Crystal is flat on her back on the bed, thick lines of your white cum leading from her feet all the way over the top of her cleavage where it disappears from sight. Her feet are lazily stroking the sides of your cock and there's giggling coming from the other end of the bed.

"Crys?"

"Oh my god, James!" she gets out between giggles, "what the _hell!"_ Floating herself to a sitting position her face is plastered in your jizz, including a shot right in the middle of her forehead. "How in the fuck did you shoot this far and still manage to hit me?"

You clap a hand over your mouth to try and keep your own laugh under control and look away. "Come on now, I'm not the one who was aiming."

With smiling eyes your girlfriend takes her foot and brings it in to her face and licks your cum off as you watch. You hadn't gone soft thanks to your magical tricks, but her keeping her word gives you a little extra surge that sends your cock bobbing.

Crystal gives an exaggerated swallow and a sunny smile before she floats closer. "Okay, now can you clean me up?"

"How about I do you one better?" You give a little chuckle as you just render the both of you clean and naked with a wave.

Settling backwards in your lap she turns and you kiss hungrily as she grinds against you. Instead of continuing the nude lap dance though, you lift her up and pull her back, letting your cock rest long and hard against her belly as you wrap her in your arms."I think you asked for something."

She gives a little shiver and a smile. "Uh-huh."

You take one of her hands and slide it down to your dick. "You want this all the way inside you?" When she gives a breathy gasp of agreement you continue, "You think you can take it?"

Crystal half-turns in your lap and looks at you with wild eyes and a flush that's made it down to her nipples. "After I saw your cock for the first time I didn't just make sure that Amy made it so I couldn't get pregnant, I had her change me so I could take your cock balls deep every time without hurting."

_Fuck_, that was what you scryed the end of last week. You've awakened a ravenous monster. Hitting her with a featherlight charm you surge to your knees and position yourself behind her before she can blink. She barely has time to gasp before you've lubed both her and your cock. "I'm gonna fuck you so sweet and tender~" you croon.

Bucking back, you're pretty sure she engages her flight to try and push back harder. "Don't you fucking dare, Jaaaa—!"

You give an extra little twitch of your hips from where you've hilted yourself in her, doing your best to grind an extra centimeter or so deeper. The only thing that looks like it's holding her upright are her hands fisted and trembling in the sheets. Placing your own hand in the small of her back you take your time withdrawing and keeping her from trying to force you back inside before thrusting back in and this time her arms go out from under her, leaving her back arched as she moans into the sheets. A third hip-shaking thrust leads to _her_ grinding her hips back on you and sighing 'Ohgod_yes_'. At that point it's open season as you jackhammer your blond lover as hard and as fast as you can.

Without using any magic you angle your thrusts using her cries as a guide and in just a few minutes she's turned into a shaking mess on the edge of orgasm. With a swat to her ass Crystal locks up and shakes, singing her pleasure into the mattress. You content yourself with stroking her back and grinding little circles until she recovers her breath. "Crystal?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna use magic this time."

She jerks in surprise. "Wait, you weren't?"

Charging your hands and cock you give her a nice, smooth stroke and her legs collapse as she gets cut off again. You end up looming over her, able to dip your head down and murmur in her ear. "Not a bit."

You can't stroke her as fully as you could before, but between the magic and rubbing the length of your cock against the front of her channel Crystal descends into a wailing, giggling mess. You pepper her shoulders with kisses as she murmurs your name over and over, kicking her feet back to try and trap you inside her.

After two more orgasms she reaches behind herself and manages to hook your head enough to drag you in to a sloppy sideways kiss. When she pulls back you feel her hot breath as she pants. "Baby, I need you to cum for me," she nips at your chin and tries to clear her hair from in front of her face, "James, I'm gonna die if you don't cum inside me, fill me up, fuck!"

You'd been using your mind magics to hold back, and as soon as you relax your hold on yourself you give her exactly what she asked for, shooting thick ropes into her clenching channel.

Swirling your magic down into your balls they swell with seed again and your next blast feels like a lightning bolt up your spine and leaves your cock like a bolt.

Crystal jerks her head up and almost hits you in the mouth. She manages a "Jesus fuck!" before her eyes roll back and she flops bonelessly beneath you.

Rolling both of you over to the side and spooning her slightly-shorter body you check her over and find her stretched, sore, and unconscious, but otherwise fine. You switch to stroking her side as you cuddle her to you.

She wakes up not too long after, but takes a couple of minutes before she manages to speak. "What in the living fuck was that?"

"I, uh, concentrated my magic like I do with my hands or my dick, but on my balls instead. Had no idea it'd do that."

Crystal rolls over and looks you right in the eyes. "It felt like you tased me except with pleasure. Right in the vagina. Seriously, warn a girl." Shifting her hips a bit she frowns. "Also I think you came like a gallon inside me."

You chuckle. "I won't do it again, and I'm sure it wasn't a gallon, but it did seem to replenish the supply."

"Oh, we're gonna do it again sometime, but like under more controlled circumstances." Her eyes get a gleam, "Like, sexy science experiments…"

Kissing her nose you pull her closer. "Will you wear just a labcoat? And maybe some glasses with your hair in a bun?"

There's a smile in her voice as she does a bit of snuggling in herself. "But what about the thigh-highs I wanna wear too?" She pauses and then leans back enough to look up at you when your cock twitches. "How are you still hard?"

You're sure your smile is a bit rueful. "Magic. I was using it when we both came, so it kept me hard. Don't worry, I'll tuck it away and we can relax."

That gets you a scowl and she rolls he two of you over so she's straddling you and narrows her eyes. "Nah. Let's take this to the shower and you can wash my hair with those magic hands and let me fly up and down you, but _no magic dick._" She lifts off of you and touches down off the side of the bed, almost collapsing as her knees go to jelly.

"Let me heal you first."

"Eh, alright a little bit, but not completely." She turns with a calculating look. "Warlock and Panacea can heal, but _James_ can't, and people are going to know that I came home with you." The look turns mischievous, "So if I _don't_ walk funny tomorrow they'll be suspicious, but if I _do_ then they'll just think you're good in bed. I mean, they'll have no idea how good, but still."

You get up and scoop her into your arms. "You're a flatterer, but keep stroking my ego."

She floats away from you and turns to flick a foot along your cock. "Stroke, stroke!" she calls before blurring into the bathroom.

Laughing, you give chase.


	27. Week 5, Zombie Wednesday

You let Crystal sleep in on the next morning and roll your ass out of bed and go hunt down a teenage girl.

..wait, that came out wrong. Especially because you're planning on hunting down _two_ teenage girls this week.

Taylor doesn't seem to be expecting you, but doesn't say anything about either your untimely appearance or your manly fanny pack. You let her maintain her stoic silence for a bit before you finally get stopped at a light. She makes a long pull from her water and looks over at you. "…so Crystal said you're pretty good at getting stains out of things?"

"Is this about your backpack?" At her nod you continue, "Sure, I can fix it up for you, but won't you need it this week?"

"Yeah, she said something about picking it up this weekend? I don't know, I'll email her."

Actually, you're pretty sure Crystal has gone full mother-hen and wants to take Taylor out shopping or something this weekend. Assuming things don't go tits-up of course.

With the ice broken, you and Taylor chat a bit more at crosswalks until it's time for her to head back to her house. You unbuckle the fanny pack and stop her. "I didn't see you yesterday, but happy Valentine's Day from Crystal and I." You pull some cookies out of the pack to show her and hand the whole thing over. The skinny girl freezes until you nudge her a bit, her eyes flicking between you and the bag. While you wouldn't need to be a mind-reader to see that she's waiting for the other shoe to drop, you _are_, so you get to see in explicit detail that she thinks you're going to splash her with water and run off laughing, knock them out of her hands, or a million worse things. Instead you brush your shoulder against hers and do your best to radiate calm when she startles. "Don't forget to hit up Crystal. I'll see you tomorrow."

You make it most of the way back to the apartment when you get a text complaining about the lack of coffee, so you show back up with a large cup of something claiming to be coffee with about a half-pound of whipped cream. You're barely through the door before you're mugged by a naked blonde. You manage to get a smack on one cheek as she floats away, though.

Tuesday's your early day, so you head over to the lair and fire off a text to Amy about the videos. You get a text back not long after.

A: BG has burn victims, gonna help

Ah, I'm not cleared yet :W

Supposedly tomorrow :W

You levitate the water and honey that you acquired into the ritual room and come out to another message

A: You could pick me up from the hospital?

A: Aunt Sarah okayed it

A: No one's going to freak

A: We could only do it for an hour or two

A: Team meeting got moved to today

Well, good. Being arrested would be irritating. :W

Let me know when you're done :W

A: Like two hours?

A: I'll text you again.

Enough time to do a test run of the cleansing ritual. You _are _going to do it for the entire ritual space, but that shouldn't add any appreciable time, so you portion out clean water and honey into a couple of bowls and place them in the ritual circle, along with the empty bowl that you'll fill with blood.

Before you step in and begin the ritual proper, however, you also gather some robes you found from the trunk and place them in the circle as well. They'll be cleansed and can remain in the circle for some time

Divesting yourself of all of your clothes, wands, and holsters, you step over the double-circle, take up the athame and move over to the empty bowl. You've checked and double-checked the enchantments on the blade and the edges will always remain magically sharp and never cause lasting damage while the flat will seal wounds. Still, it takes a moment of consideration before committing to the cut.

The dark glass blade parts the skin of your wrist so smoothly you don't feel anything before the blood wells up and flows thickly into the silver bowl. You're not sure how much pours out of you before it seems enough, but there's a deep pool of crimson as you press the flat of the blade against your wrist, leaving you unmarked.

Taking a spot in the center of the circle with the three bowls equidistant in a triangle within arms reach, you relax you arms at your side and lower your head. Standing there you breathe in and out slowly before gathering yourself and _lifting_, pulling on your magic like casting a spell.

"_Cemjō, soitos, qe pāsmi mene weltis" _

Come, magic, and heed my will.

A static charge rolls through the air as you turn first to the bowl of water and place your hand just over the surface.

"_Wodṛ, kṛdiesṛwos dhoubnom, lowō mūdnós olja esmi mēk∂stos._"

Water, heartsblood of the world, wash away all that is impure.

The contents roil as you pivot to the honey and speak the next line.

"_Melit, k∂stos rōdōwos dhoubnom, newājō qe dhētum olja solwos ati._"

Honey, pure tears of the world, renew and make all whole again.

The thick honey shimmers and shifts as you face the third bowl and intone,

"_Kruwós, reigō que dómāmi ghāi-ke galnos que welwō anaeti mene weltis_"

Blood, bind and control this power, turn it to my will.

The blood quivers in the bowl as if alive and waiting on your will.

A twitch of your hands and all three bowls erupt into pillars and commingle into a large sphere above your head, slowly turning first the same green as your eyes before changing to an imperial purple. You feel the invisible bounds of the ritual circle flex as they accept the first magic done within them and siphon small bits off to reinforce themselves. Still, above you the sphere gets bigger and bigger, with more volume than could be explained by the contents of the bowls.

At this point you have complete mental control of the ball, spreading it out to blanket the top of the ritual circle with a flex of thought like a stormcloud. And just like that cloud the purifying magic pours down on everything. It feels like being out during a summer rain shower, but yet you don't get wet, although there is a sense of _something_ being drained away, leaving you feeling lighter and cleaner.

You let the cleansing shower continue for quite a while as you acclimate to the prickle of the ritual magic against your skin. While most of the ritual magic has drained away, drawing off those mystical impurities you gather the remainder as a much-reduced sphere before feeding it to the circle wards to speed their enhancement.

Positioning yourself in the center of the circle for the last time, you bow your head and gesture from the sky back to the earth and intone the ritual closing.

"_Bhkirkos bhewmi ōsmi mō ghawōdskei. Soitos, egō ledō juwes, ṛskai qe esmi áiwi aiwós!_"

The circle is open but unbroken. Magic, I release you, go and be always eternal.

Opening eyes you don't remember closing you walk out of the circle and can immediately sense the difference in the air. The ritual circle had become saturated with ambient magic and you didn't notice any issues. Out in the rest of your lair you feel slightly lethargic—nothing major, but you can easily see how you could overdo a ritual working and end up collapsing afterwards. In fact you just snag your phone from the table and check for messages (there are none) and collapse into the bed you keep there for a nice hour's worth of nap.

You awaken to a text from Amy and quickly go to pick her up from the hospital. Your arrival in the same break room you first met her in last week is simple, but you're a little suspicious when the white-clad healer points out that she really should be seen leaving the hospital. You really need to take a drama class or something, because a good, flat stare doesn't work well when made from behind a mask.

"You just want to be seen leaving with me to stir up PHO, don't you?"

Like some kind of tsundere she starts shaking her head and opens her mouth before stopping and slumping. "Yeah."

You chuckle. "Then sure, why not? Can I make a suggestion on how to do it?"

So you find yourself a few minutes later walking out of the hospital with Panacea holding one arm and your duster turned in to more of a cloak. Once you see someone with their phone out filming she points to them as if shocked, burrows into your cloak as she pulls it around her, and yells "Ninja Vanish!"

You manage to pull off an impressive cloud of billowing smoke and apparate both of you away in a split second, hopefully leaving behind a number of confused passers-by. Amy seems to appreciate it, leaning against you and giggling for a moment or two before she looks around the room.

"So this is your evil lair, huh?"

"Wait, _evil_?" You press a hand against your chest. "Oh hell no, I cleaned before I moved in and got rid of all the evil."

Shucking her robe, the brunette pulls her laptop out of her bag and starts setting up at the table. "You call it a lair. I'm pretty sure only villains call their places lairs."

"Well what am I going to call it? It's not a headquarters, it's not a bolt-hole. A hideaway?" You gesture around and shrug, "I'll talk with my architect to see about putting in a dungeon and a throne room so I can capture that essential evil lair feel." You pull a chair up next to her and sit, putting your Warlock phone down. "Before we get started, I want to make sure that Laserdream had spoken with you about my ability to enchant items with shields like the necklace you borrowed this weekend." At her nod you continue, "I'd like to enchant your robes with a physical shield, and something you will be able to keep on you with both a physical and emotional shield. The latter isn't _great_ against masters, but it's what I have at the moment and y'know, better than nothing."

Amy reaches over and hands you her robe which you take and start enchanting immediately. It's the work of perhaps a minute and her face twitches minutely as she takes it back like she can almost-but-not-quite feel the spell layered on the cloth. She seems a little stuck on the other part, though. "I don't really have any jewelry that I wear other than earrings."

"Which I could enchant if you'd like, but you'd need to wear the same ones. I can also create simple items like the necklaces that Crystal had for testing."

"Uh… I'll try to come up with something?" She turns back to her computer and you see an open folder with thumbnails that look suspiciously like romance novel covers with your mask and Amy's face pasted on, but she smoothly closes it with barely a hint of red in her cheeks, opening a directory called 'Warlock clips' instead.

You push into her mind and she's miles better than she has been. While all of the previous couple of years of damage is still there, the past few weeks away from constant Vicky aura seems to have made a difference. She isn't 'healed' so much as she's moving on. Not the most healthy option, but better than wallowing like she would have in the canon timeline.

On a different mental track, though, is her certainty that Warlock and James are the same person. Crystal has been super cagy, but Amy's no fool. You follow one mental thread and see Amy and her cousin having an incredibly-stilted conversation before your arrival at the Pelham house the other day. Crystal was dodging the question of how she met you like a pro and Amy was pointedly not saying that she was damned sure that you are Crystal's boyfriend. Especially when Crystal told her that it was okay to flirt a little.

She wants to.

She's scared to.

She has no idea how to.

Scooting your chair a bit closer you lean over to see better as the teenager's fingers absently bring up an image viewer. She's done an excellent job pulling stills and short clips from all three phones that show action but doesn't give away too much—a gif that's obviously from one of the girls shows you smokejumping down to freeze and remove the gun from a Merchant's hand before bursting once more into smoke when another junkie comes around the corner of a van and doing it again, then leaning both statues against each other, for example, or shots from your various cameras (and possibly Lady Photon's) of the three of you posing singly or together looking pretty hero-y.

As Crystal said, though, anything she's put text on is suspect as hell. You can't even _begin_ to understand half of the supposed memes.

"Where does the swordfish come in to this?" you ask.

"Well, you see, there's the people who always talk about using swords like it's more awesome and animeish, and then there's people who talk about slapping people with a fish, right?" She tilts her head towards you and looks out of the corner of her eye. "So it's become a thing. Lung and Kaiser and Hookwolf all have memes about it too."

"…and here I thought fish couldn't have power levels," you murmur, still confused. "At least the one where I'm covered in spikes is the obvious and expected edgy joke, even if I look like a steel porcupine."

Turning to you, Amy clenches her hands in frustration. "That's not even that bad, with the white and red color scheme I've been photoshopped into looking like an ambulance!"

It's a horrible idea to tease a walking biohazard, but you summon her robe from behind her so it drapes over the girl's body and transfigure a set of lights on top. A sound charm gives the 'wee-woo' of the siren.

Her lunge is so fast and brutal you have to smokejump to escape from her strangling hands and lead her on a couple of revolutions of the table before letting yourself be 'captured'. You dispel the changes and let Amy beat her hands against your chest as you pick her up and sit back down in front of her laptop with her on your lap this time.

"Why do you have to be a tool, Ja-jerk?" The hitch in her speech is small, but she's screaming internally that she's fucked up, that you'll hate her, that—

You merely tuck your arms around her a bit tighter and reach out to scroll down another page. "I'm not going to promise to use any of the memes, but since your thread already knows you were at the depot, feel free to post any of the action shots or clips you made in my thread. You can say you have my permission to do so." A glance down at the time tells you that she'll need to be back to the Pelham's soon. The slow rock of her butt against you tells you that she's gotten over the shock of your embrace. Part of you would really like to see where this goes, but this is neither the time nor place. No matter what your throbbing cock tells you.

There's a lull where she copies files to your phone as you hold her that keeps her on a slow simmer as the two of you grind. This isn't going to be sustainable forever, you need to talk to Crystal yet again about this. Still, you're not going to push the girl in your arms away or shut her out; it would only do more harm than you've healed.

In the end you feel that continuing the intimate feel is correct, even if it's getting time for her to go. Making sure to pitch your voice down as you lean near her ear. "Before I take you back, you need the other enchanted items. Have you made any decisions?"

Chewing on her lip, Amy brings up her browser and blazes through a search fast enough you can't see her autocompletes, and seems to know exactly where to click. "This."

Oh, nice. You hum appreciatively as you summon a velvet robe from where you had been going through some looking for ritual robes, as well as sacrificial gold baubles. Creating the necklace itself is the work of a few moments. Although she requests the charm be changed to an ankh, there's a moment in her head where she weighs asking for a copy of your mask instead.

Amy shudders as you fasten the choker and one hand fists itself down by her waist while the other brushes ever so lightly over the band around her neck.

Once again leaning close, you murmur the information about the shields and how it can't be used by others to choke her. When the words 'cannot be removed except by you or I' are said she almost begs for you to deny her the ability to remove it herself, but manages to keep it all in her head. Shifting her slightly you run your hand down her back for a minute or two before both of you reluctantly disengage to take her to the Pelham house.

When you return to the lair you scry Lisa's mark to get an idea of where she is. The connection is tenuous, but gives you a general sense of 'not quite downtown' as well as 'underground'. Super suspicious, so of course your immediate guess is that she's in Coil's snakehole. Ew. Evil lair, not snakehole. You take a map of the city and narrow the area down a bit, but can't get a good lock. You'll try again each evening until you have an idea of her general haunts.

Back in the main room, you throw your coat back on before heading out to the first of Diego's hides. This one is near the mountains to the south inside a dilapidated-looking garage hidden behind a condemned house. The exteriors of both buildings contain traps, but you're trivially able to bypass all of the man's planning simply by appearing inside.

It's been a couple of months since he visited the joint, so the water damage is new, but you're able to pop the safe and find the cash and gun kept in there. The remainder of the floor space is taken up by the beater car and motorcycle and a cot with medical supplies tucked underneath.

[X][Hideaway] Some combination? Write-in

-[X] Everything

All of the small stuff—the cash, gun, medkit and some spare clothes—go on the cot and get shoved into spare space in your trunk. With a bit of finagling you manage to get the motorcycle in as well, but that leaves you with the car. It's a pretty beat-up Crown Vic colored in the same dark blue of the Brockton police and a 'Police Interceptor' badge on the back, so it was probably an old cop car. Nothing special, there are likely millions of the thing so you won't feel bad if this doesn't work.

You pull out your wand, concentrate, and smoothly shrink the entire twenty-foot-long car into something the size and weight of a matchbox car, and it likewise goes into the chest.

Some additional poking and you find a fake passport for Diego taped to the recessed top of the safe, canned food and a hotplate, gas stored in plastic jerry cans, a couple of magazines about either guns or naked women, and a cheap cellphone from a 7-11 with a prepaid SIM still in the plastic. This really was just a simple bolthole then. Although you probably shouldn't have expected too much, being the farthest away of his hiding spots, this one was likely made for bugging the fuck out after he had gotten items from the other one. Unfortunately that one is in a residential area that would have people around at this time of day; perhaps you can hit it up tomorrow or Thursday evening.

You're pretty pumped when you walk into Programming on Wednesday right at 1. Crystal looks incredibly confused to see you, though. She does a pretty good job of containing her questions until you sit down, but as soon as you do she leans over.

"Don't you have an appointment, dear?"

You beam at her. "I do! And it's taken care of."

That seems to take the wind out of her sails. "But…" she cuts off as her phone dings with a message. She looks at it and goes rigid next to you before her head slowly turns. "How are you doing this?" she hisses at you, pointing to a selfie of Warlock in sitting in Calle's waiting room.

Oh man, you don't even _try_ to keep the shit-eating grin off of your face, but you do shield your mouth from everyone else as you turn to look right in her eyes and wiggle your other hand's fingers. "_Maaaaaaaaagic."_

It is _completely unsurprising_ that you get dragged into an empty classroom so fast after class that you might have windburn. "How are you in two places at once?"

"Seriously, magic." You step away from her and get the time-turner ready, after checking the class hours posted near the door. This'll do. "Now I'm not promising to be in Cape class, but hopefully I'll make it. Just act normal and I'll explain in my lair this evening." You step back in, kiss her, then back again and activate the time-turner to go back an hour and a quarter, appearing in an empty classroom. You apparate to your lair so fast that you don't know if you would even have been visible even if class had actually been in session.

You're geared up and ready to go in moments, and on the roof near Quinn Calle's office seconds later. You smokejump not directly in front of the building's entrance, but to the nearest cross-street, ambling down the sidewalk and ignoring the forest of phones that are quickly turned your way. You step inside and announce yourself to an amazingly professional receptionist. She doesn't bat an eye at Edgy McDeath just waltzing in, and manages to not roll her eyes at your selfie that you send to your girlfriend.

You're ushered back after only a moment to meet with Quinn Calle. As you vaguely remember from canon, he's Latino, dapper as hell in his navy-blue suit, and has that nasty facial scar that made him stand out. You shake hands and he gestures you to a seat before looking over some notes.

"Now, Warlock—I have to say this is a _bit_ unusual for me, primarily because you aren't the focus of any undue attention from the law," he says with an easy smile.

You chuckle a bit. "And I'd love to say that I would like to continue not attracting their attention, but with how dysfunctional cape law seems to be I don't know if that's even possible."

Calle's lips quirk just the slightest bit. "Very true. Now, Carol was nice enough to give me a heads up on what she thought you might need, but before we get to that let's talk about the unpleasant fact that there will be costs involved."

You worm your way in to his head and see that he's on the up-and-up as far as this goes. "Let's set up a retainer and I'll stick some funds in to stock it. Part of what I'd like to ask involves other ways of making money."

As it happens, this was an eventuality that Quinn had already prepared for, and you shortly have a pet shark on retainer. Said bloodthirsty mammal then gets down to the current items at hand.

"Okay, first order of business is the PRT and the DA's office. When an independent is involved in some kind of law enforcement action that involves arrests, the prosecuting attorneys _really_ want information that could help them in their case. I will admit I'm generally on the opposing side on this, but this is all fairly standard. It is unusual, however, for a cape to allow themselves to be penned in long enough to give a deposition."

Leaning back a bit you once again skim Quinn's mind. He's unworried that this could impact you negatively, but you should verify that verbally. "So that's when they just ask me questions about how and why I did what I did, record it, and use it to prove things like 'Bob the thug was actually there, because Warlock claims he saw him talking to Squealer before he froze him.'"

Calle points a pen at you. "Effectively, yes. Now what would likely happen is I will request a list of questions from the DA, we'll go over them together first and I'll check your story for any issues. Since you're not the one being indicted, there's not a lot of worry about any of it, but it's a good habit to check it anyhow. We could have it done here, at court, or in the federal prosecutor's office, whichever you feel comfortable with." Dropping the pen, he leans forward and gestures with his hands. "There is, at the moment, no _requirement_ that you offer any testimony, and given how unhelpful most capes are, anything you do would make the prosecutors jump for joy." He leans back again, "I'd be with you if you decide to, no matter where, and the when could be negotiated. I'm sure they'd want something by the end of next week, though."

[X][Deposition] Offer to give a deposition at the DA's office

You lean forward to match the lawyer on the other side of the desk. "I have no problem giving testimony as long as we go through the questions ahead of time." You wave one hand off to the side in a throwing gesture. "If they act like bitches we can leave one way or the other; the main issue I see is that I believe that some of the Merchants had dirt on somebody in the Prosecutor's office—I don't know if it was the state or local one though."

Quinn's eyes light up and he folds his hands together and smiles. "Oh _really_. Do tell."

Leaning back and crossing your legs, you bring one hand up to touch the nose of your mask. "I can't prove any of it at the moment. It's all hearsay, but I'm planning on looking in to a lead I have on actual evidence. Like _photographic_ evidence."

"If you find actual evidence of anything like that, tell me. If the local DA is compromised will go to the state, state to Fed, and Fed, well I know a few people in the surrounding states."

"Alright, second. You are cleared to heal at Brockton General—with or without Panacea. I have contact information, and they would like you to call them beforehand and give a rough estimate of the time you're willing to spend so that they can set things up so that there aren't any riots, and that there are sufficient cases. The pay rate listed is $150/hour minimum, _or _Medicare rates on the illnesses healed, whichever is greater." He holds up a hand as soon as he sees you twitch. "If you're going to ask anything about Panacea, all I can say is she is also paid. I negotiated one of the first contracts, but Carol took over shortly thereafter, and I know she's renegotiated with the hospital at least three times. I can ask her if she will share details of Panacea's contract, but she very well may not, and she has quite a bit of seniority.

"There are a number of other hospitals and similar places that will likely extend you similar agreements, again I'll check them over and we can discuss them before you agree or not." He puts the documents to the side and makes a note on a pad. "Are there any issues you want to discuss today?"

"Yes, actually, and the first couple tie directly in to healing," you offer. "While I have no problem with offering healing at one or more of the hospitals, would it be more profitable for me to also offer private healing? Or perhaps non-healing medial services like, say, plastic surgery?"

_That_ gets his attention. "You can do plastic surgery?"

"It's better than that, really, there's no real surgery involved. I can make bodily changes to soft tissue effectively at-will as long as there's mass to do so. I can change hair, eye, and skin color, do nose and cheek jobs, lift and tighten, fix acne, modify voices…. Pretty much anything you could think of under the heading of 'plastic surgery' without the actual 'surgery'.

A hand has drifted up to Calle's scar and you tilt your head towards him. "Yes, including scars. Would you like a test run?" At his nod you urge him to go find a mirror and pull your wand while he's gone. He comes back in with a small pocket mirror and keeps his gaze locked on his scar as you repair it in moments. "Ta-dah."

Rubbing at his cheek his eyes flick from the mirror to you. "So this works with breast enhancement, weight loss…"

"Yes, and yes. It would even work for wrinkle-removing better than Botox. I do have limitations—I can't enhance breasts or butts or what-have-you unless there is body mass to shift around and turn into the extra padding, so if some high-fashion skeleton model wants a pair of double D's she needs to stop doing rails of coke and eat a lot of cheeseburgers for a week or so ahead of time. Also, I'm not actually turning back the clock, so wrinkles will come back with time, it's not going to keep them from forming again, and while I can make fat just disappear if people don't change their eating habits they're gonna get fat again." You shrug, "But if all they're looking for is a nose job I can match a picture or free-form it and it'll be perfect. Want perfect abs? I can sculpt them. Dick enhancement? Doable, but providing the blood is their own issue if they want to try and have a two-foot dong."

Quinn seems a bit at sea with all of this. "I can't even begin to offer you suggestions at the moment—my primary work is as a defense attorney." A sharklike grin spreads on his now perfect face after a moment. "However, I know _exactly_ who to ask. Let me speak with them and I'll get back to you on that."

"Sure. I have a number of other questions, but let me throw out two more so you can keep your law clerks buzzing."

Shutting the mirror with a snap he starts scribbling notes furiously. "I'm sure they'll appreciate it. What else do you have?"

"I'd like to set up a base in an abandoned building. How could that be legally acquired without revealing information about me, and get things like electricity set up, and could I run into trouble for performing a magic show on the street or Boardwalk?"

The lawyer stops, looks at you sharply, and runs a hand through his well-pomaded hair. "And here I though you wouldn't be trouble. I'll get you a busking license—that's not the actual term Brockton uses, but it's close enough. You carry it on you and produce it if cops sniff around. There is a list of rules, and I'll get you a pamphlet.

"The base thing can be done, but I would need to know the location, find the current owner, get it sold to a holding company, and have the holding company handle things. If you want it kept quiet it would need to be done over a period of time, perhaps mixed up in with other sales. Get me the address and we can talk more."

You've piled a lot on his plate, so that's probably good. You have one last question, this one about the stunt you're about to pull outside. Luckily, you're all good. The two of you verify contact information and bid each other a good day before you step outside to a number of reporters and cape groupies hiding in ambush. Checking your phone you can see that you'll be able to make class if you hurry, so as much as you'd like to have an extended troll session you don't really have the time.

Still, you don't want to _disappoint._ You raise a small lectern and pause to look over the assembled… group.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, citizens of Brockton Bay, and… the rest of you, I guess. I have brought you together today to state, unequivocally for the record that I am not Myrddin, nor is he my father." You pause for a moment. "Nor am I _his_ father, and there are no weird past-life, time-loop, or similar shenanigans involved. However," you lean forward and use magic to project your voice all the way to the back of the crowd, "I officially declare that I am not the evil twin of Myrddin!" You spread your arms out like you're revealing a deeply-held secret, "Because I am not the one with a goatee! I am the _good_ twin!"

There is a collective blink as you calmly dismiss the lectern and start to stroll off. It turns out you didn't _quite_ time things right as everyone starts yelling just a few moments before a honking cacophony heralds a number of geese with protest signs claiming 'Down with animal use in magic acts!' flapping towards you angrily. You turn, and with a familiar cry of "Ninja vanish!" burst into smoke right as they reach you, leaving only feathers and confusion behind.

…needless to say the stare from Crystal when you stroll in to Cape 101 with about ten seconds to spare is _murderous._ You're not even sure if she blinks the entire class, and the side of your head is uncomfortably warm. Given her… irritation, you don't resist when you get marched double-time to her dorm room, you just grab her and pop to your lair.

"Before you explode from holding in your questions, let me explain. I have unlocked the ability to go back in time for short-ish periods."

You can almost see whatever train of thought she had get derailed and catch on fire. "_What?!_"

You step up to her and put your arms around her. "It's the truth, as odd as it sounds. I can only really do a bit more today, and doing it on a regular basis would probably hurt me, but it seemed like a good idea to try to establish Warlock as, well, not-James Peverell. Let's check in with myself and you can prove it." You turn Crystal to the side as you slide behind her and watch as you shimmer into existence and tuck the time-turner away. The other you is shirtless and steps forward to press your girlfriend between you. "It's me, likely from just a short time in the future. We are both your boyfriend."

Crystal's trembling hand touches your chest as you banish your shirt. She looks into your eyes as you lean into her and speak into the shell of her ear. "Perhaps you've had thoughts about this?" In front of her you hold one of her hands to your cheek and tilt her chin up to kiss her softly, right as you press another kiss right below her ear. "Imagine the possibilities."

Her breathing is ragged but she manages a giggle. "Oh no, one of you is more than enough right now, I'm pretty sure two would…." she trails off as her eyes unfocus and you share a look with yourself. The eyebrow quirk looks just as insufferable as you feel doing it. Your girlfriend snaps back into reality as you apply your lips and hands to her for a few sweet moments. In time, however, you step back and let you take Crystal into your arms, then position yourself in the correct spot. "See you fifteen minutes ago, sweetie."

Crystal jolts as you disappear, turning back to make sure you're still with her. "Two hours max, and I'm not sure doing it every day is a good idea. I'm all tapped out for today and somewhat tired because of it; your dirty little mind will have to wait."

Adorably, she actually stamps her foot and glowers at you. "_My_ dirty mind? You jerk!"

Ooh, that tickles something. You fill Crystal in on your playdate with Amy yesterday and she gets quiet. "She knows. Neither of us have said the words to each other, but she knows I know, and I know she knows. She will never say a thing, though." She sighs and cuddles into you. "Let me talk to her, but you may want to reveal yourself if only to make things easier on yourself."

Groaning as she stretches in your arms, you grab your missing shirt and pop the both of you back to her dorm. You're going to be doing a movie night in the common area of S Klub's hall and are meeting them for dinner, so you have no real reason to head back to your apartment.

You end up on a ratty couch with one arm around Savannah's shoulders that she's clasped between her breasts and the other on the back of the couch with Soon-Yi cuddling into your side. Susan and Crystal are sharing a large chair and whispering intensely about something that involves a lot of giggling. Sarah was supposed to be joining you but said she'd be late, and Karen and Sierra are out with their boyfriend and at their job, respectively.

About halfway through a frankly horrible romantic comedy that the girls decided on Sarah comes in and slumps down on the couch. The movie's put on pause as she tells you all that her big from the sorority has gone missing. She had spoken with the girl on Monday and there was a date with her boyfriend in the works now that he was out of the hospital, but she hadn't turned up at the sorority house yesterday or today. Soon-Yi and Susan offer hugs and sympathy as the girl frets.

Around that point Karen shuffles in and leans against the doorway, clearly having heard the last couple of sentences. "So your big sister is actually named Chloe Barker, Sarah?" Her mind is odd, slimy-feeling, and almost like it's clogged.

"Yeah, neither she or her boyfriend have been seen since Monday," the half-Asian girl replies. That's when you feel ten more slimy-brained presences enter your range. They're all heading directly for the lounge.

Karen doesn't seem to have noticed Crystal pillowed in the chair as she sighs. "Well that sucks for you." She takes a lurching step forward as guys in long jackets crowd in behind her. "Because master has said that you're all to be brought to him."

You manage to slide your phone out of your pocket despite Savannah hogging your side so you could warn Crystal of Karen feeling weird, although you'd have to couch it as something other than mind reading. Feeling the others arrive had you change the message to Amy, your only New Wave contact on this phone.

W/ sklub karen mastered? :J

10 mor minions :J

Phn 2 savna :J

Trusting Amy to take it from there you make sure the phone's silenced and shove it in Savanna's hands. "I've texted Amy, keep her updated," you hiss, pushing her down so she's not as visible over the back of the couch. Looking over to the right, Crystal has rolled out of the recliner and is crouched on the other side, ready to act.

You decide to provide her a distraction. Whirling to your feet you draw the redhead's eye. "Karen, we're not interested in your BDSM roleplay."

Karen looks rough, with deep bruise-colored bags under her eyes. Her skin is ash-pale and she seems hunched in on herself. With your appearance she stops a single step into the common room with a bunch of even-rougher-looking thugs backed up behind her. "J-james?" Tears prickle her eyes, "I'm so sorry, but I gotta take you to master." Even as she looks about to cry, her body rears back and throws a punch at your face.

Which you catch.

A crimson shield covers the doorway to block the rest of the goons from coming in as you catch Karen's other hand. You know Crystal's defense is weak as hell compared to her offense, so even as you wrestle the tired-looking girl into complacency you move the both of you out of the way of minion 1 shoulder-checking the shield.

And failing to break it.

You share an incredulous look with Crystal before the _second_ hit breaks her shield and she immediately puts another one up. Come to think of it, you've manhandled Karen pretty easily, like she's a toddler trying to fight you. You even manage to grab both of her hands in one of yours and turn her face to look in to yours long enough to browse her mind.

It appears that her 'master'—some edgy guy in a spiked leather jacket and Guy Fawkes mask, of all things—has enslaved a number of people, drawing _something_ out of them and forcing them to obey his will. Unfortunately whatever has been drawn out of them seems to have made them weaker and less-coordinated, at least in Karen's case.

So this new cape, who you dub 'Mook-maker' in your head, had sent Karen out with this group of, well, mooks, to take Sarah because she was associated with the Nu Tau sorority, and more especially because of her big sister. That seems… ridiculously bitchy and revenge-laden.

The 'control' is clumsy as hell, with some kind of goo in the brain that blocks physical movements that go against the master's directions and jolts of pleasure/pain to act as a reinforcement/punishment system. There's something else that seems to be draining… something. Vitality? Fucking _orgone energy_? You don't know how space-whale mind control works other than really ham-handedly in this case.

You could break it and you're _pretty_ sure that Mook-maker wouldn't know the difference between 'rescued' and 'dead', but either might warn him too early. You hold off for the moment, but it's an option you can take at any time.

You pull the location of 'master's last known location out of her head—a large groundskeeping storage shed that had been damaged in the Merchant rampage a couple of weeks earlier—and the knowledge that he had more minions that were dispatched to abduct other people from Karen's defenseless head in moments. She doesn't know more about him other than the fact that he's being followed by three girls in chains and gags that no-one is to acknowledge.

Crystal has refreshed her shield a couple of times and the male mooks seem to be single-minded on getting through. Karen's roughly as weak as a kitten, so….

"Savanna? Put Amy on speaker and c'mere."

The blonde hurries over to your side and Crystal walks over as well, still keeping an eye on the door and putting up a new shield as needed. You glance down to see the call's connected. "Amy, it's James, Crystal's here too."

"Karen's mastered? What's going on?"

"Whoa now, slow down. They're like weak zombies or something. I'm holding both of Karen's hands in my own and she's harmless, and Crystal's shield is holding the rest off. So—"

"Wait, seriously, Crystal's shield is useful?"

"_Amy!"_

"So don't cancel any backup you've called, but let's tell them to not to come in guns blazing, yeah?"

There's noise in the background as Amy is obviously talking to one of the Pelhams. While she's busy you turn to the southern blonde. "Savanna, take my belt off."

Even Karen pauses at that, but you continue, "And we'll use it to bind Karen's arms against her sides so I'm not stuck holding her."

There's a chorus of 'Oh' from all sides, including the phone before Amy interjects. "I managed to tell Aunt Sarah in time. She and Eric are on the way, Uncle Neil and I will be behind in the car." There's faint noises of running up and down stairs and doors slamming to tell you exactly what they're doing. "Hang tight, we're on our way."

Even with Karen struggling against you, Savannah and Susan manage to cinch your belt around the redhead's waist and forearms, giving her no leverage to escape. You have to use a sticking spell to keep your pants up, but otherwise it's not too bad. "Sooo…


	28. Protectorate Interlude

The weekly briefing had been going on for close to an hour and a half, and most of the Wards were flagging badly. With the aftermath of the fighting downtown last Thursday and the majority of the Merchants getting mopped up on Saturday everyone available had been out showing the flag and projecting power as much as possible instead of attending briefings, and this absolute monster of a meeting was the unfortunate result of that.

Clockblocker was about to start snoring when Piggot finally mentioned something that wasn't prisoner transfer to the BBPD for non-cape Merchants or yet more changes to patrol routes.

"We have finally gotten information from the Thinkers about this new independent who has sprung up in the last week calling himself Warlock," she announced, biting the name off. Stabbing a button on a pad in front of her pictures began to cycle on the projected screen as she picked up a report and began to read off of it. "The first actual sighting was on Thursday when he supposedly assisted New Wave by healing Brandish, assisted in the capture of Stormtiger, and then went on to assist Panacea in clearing over two hundred cases at Brockton General.

"Two days later New Wave contacted the PRT on his behalf and he, along with Laserdream and _Panacea_," she paused and glared down the noises that occurred before continuing. "Corralled ninety-four people for close to an hour, set up a capture field, drove everyone _into the capture field_, _hunted down stragglers, and took selfies with Squealer in the background."_ The portly woman was red-faced as she stared down at the report and up into each of the Protectorate capes' eyes and the paper was crumpled as she continued. "And earlier that same day he walked in to the cafe that was at the center of the Stomtiger/Ame-onna fight and repaired everything, created a counter from the rock wall he had previously raised, and then held an impomptu press conference from a throne, then disappeared before any of the Protectorate could get on-site to question him."

Once again she stabs another button on the pad and a video clip plays of a dark-clad cape with a silver skull mask lounging on a throne. There are small chuckles from the Wards section during some of the flippant answers, turning into stifled laughter as the goose emerges from the hat and the cape disappears.

Piggot tries glowering at everyone before sighing. "Based on picture, video, and reports from trusted sources, that gives him Striker, Blaster, Shaker, and Mover ratings. Considering how smoothly he worked, there are suspicions that he's not new, so possible Stranger to account for not being seen. What's worse is the responses from the Thinkers." She gestured to Armsmaster irritably, snatching up a pen and twisting it in her hands.

The armor-clad cape paused for a moment before he spoke. "Results from WEGDEG were unusual. Appraiser reported 'Hooloovoo', while Eleventh Hour kept reporting 'NAN'—not a number. Upon viewing video, including the one just shown, multiple Thinkers reported Warlock was was telling the truth, while the goose was noted as being both alive and not at the same time.

"Due to the inconsistencies, we are currently working with the assumption that 'Warlock' is either an unpowered human using Tinker-created items, or a human-form projection." The beard bristled a bit as he frowned. "The information that he required a separate implement to heal, even if it was called a 'wand', supports the former hypothesis."

Piggot cut back in. "I do not want a Tinker like this in Brockton Bay. The Empire and ABB will not play as nicely, and both would love to get a Tinker capable of outfits like this. If you see Warlock, report it to Console _immediately_. We want to have a talk with him.

Unfortunately that was the last of the interesting parts, soon the Wards were back into a collective doze until patrol.

Aegis walked through the door that Miss Militia held open for him and walked over to a seat. "Director Piggot, you asked to see me?"

"Sit down, Aegis."

After ensuring that the bandana-wearing cape had secured the door behind her, Piggot engaged the anti-surveillance baffles and turned to the Wards leader. "You said there was more information about Warlock's civilian identity."

"Ma'am, I would like to point out that this goes far past the Unwritten Rules—"

"Aegis, what could an otherwise unpowered person do if caught outside of his Tinker costume? I am not suggesting or implying that we contact them out of costume, but watching them to ensure that the gangs don't move first is important."

Carlos' mouth twisted behind his mask, but his glance at Miss Militia told him nothing as she stood there silently. "I am only in one class with James Peverell, on Tuesday mornings. He arrived with his girlfriend, Crystal Pelham. She was flying rather than walking, which was unusual for her. They both spoke with a girl named Sarah who I have seen talking with them before. Crystal left, this time walking as if she was in pain—"

"In pain how?" Piggot asked.

"Perhaps some sort of thigh injury? She was walking very gingerly, almost limping"

Miss Militia touched his shoulder. "And?"

"If James Peverell was Warlock, he would have had access to the healing tools seen before and healed Laserdream."

The two women shared a look. Piggot's tone was as dry as the desert. "Anything else?"

"No, director."

The director gave a sharp nod and turned to the other cape. "And today?"

"Peverell shares two classes with Crystal Pelham on Wednesdays. A computer programming class from shortly after 13:00 until 14:00, and a Parahuman Sociology class also shared with Victoria Dallon from 15:45 to 16:00. James Peverell was seen to attend both classes. Warlock was seen using his transportation power between 12:50 and 13:10, when he entered Quinn Calle's law office, and again at 15:20 when he left the office, raised a lectern, declared that he was Myrrdin's 'good twin', and was attacked by a flight of geese."

Piggot looked up from some scribbled notes she had taken. "Was Peverell seen during this?"

The flag-wearing cape shook her head. "No, although this isn't unusual. He and Laserdream had moved off after the first class into a private room, so they may have been… preoccupied."

With a sour grunt, the portly woman made a few final notes before pointing her pen at Aegis. "Keep an eye on this Peverell, but don't go out of your way to look suspicious. If it seems like anyone gang-related may be sniffing around, I want to know about it immediately."

"Ma'am." Carlos nodded.

"Miss Militia, take the kid off active surveillance, but continue to rely on information from the people in the PRT officer track at the University."

"That was already done over the weekend, all units were pulled to assist with prisoner detainment and transfer."

"Fine. I don't want to be in the middle of a fight over a woman with two suit-wearing wannabe capes, so let's try and let them sort it out themselves. Dismissed."

Amy threw herself on the bed and kept a sharp ear out for everyone still wandering around the Pelham house. Warlock had been the talk of the night with his multitude of powers. Everyone seemed to like him from the short periods they had dealt with him. Even Carol, of all people, offered the opinion that 'at least he had the sense to deal with lawyers _before_ he did something that needed one', which was almost enough to be considered praise from the woman.

Crystal, though… her cousin had sat next to her and reached out and held her hand, squeezed it, and smiled at her. It made the brunette's heart flutter a bit.

And then she had paid attention to the rest of her biology.

Crystal's boyfriend—and James just _had_ to be Warlock—had dumped unnatural amounts of semen inside her that was still detectable a day later. The girl had to be pleasantly sore and walking funny, and James hadn't even bothered to heal her.

_Fuck_, he had _marked_ Crystal with his seed, fucked her bow-legged, and kept her from doing anything about it so that Amy would find out later.

…and, _and_, he had taken her to his secret lair as Warlock earlier, put her on his lap so she could feel his fucking huge prick against her ass, held her, and….

She swallowed thickly and felt the faint hint of velvet on her neck. He had _collared_ her. Fuck, if she had only had a bit more daring she might have been bent over that table as he pressed her face harshly into the cold stone, his huge, no, _monstrous cock_ about to plunder her depths. He'd take the mask off and put it next to her head as he leaned down and told her to beg for what she wanted.

"Please, fuck me, J-_master—!"_

Amy jolted back to herself, not even aware that her hand had drifted into her pants while she lost herself in the fantasy. Pulling it out she examined the juices coating her first two fingers. James was a nice guy, he'd never…..

_Master_, though, _he'd_ fuck her then make her taste herself as he forced his cock down her throat….

Both hands started moving this time, one slipping past her panties, the other bringing wet fingers towards her mouth.


	29. Mook-mas Oh, it's you

"I hate to tempt fate and everything, but after the initial surprise this just isn't doing anything for me, thrill-wise."

"Oh hush James," Crystal sighs, popping another shield up. You'd already told her you needed a way out if Warlock was going to appear, but neither of you had a useful excuse at the moment.

"So anyhow, Karen, you'd refused to answer the question when I asked if your master was on campus. How about 'Is your master in a dorm building?'"

The tired redhead struggles a bit against the belt. "No."

"Is he in a building with classrooms?"

"No."

"Is he-"

A blue bubble springs up and traps the guys inside as Lady Photon and Shielder move past. Crystal starts filling them in on what's happened as you gather the girls together. Looks like your game of twenty questions came to an end.

Lady Photon looks over at the four of you, then nods back at Crystal. "All of you will need to be checked over by Amy to make sure you aren't Mastered, but James should be put somewhere separately. I'm sure the RAs would find a reason to complain if we let you all go to one of your rooms. James, you can stay in Crystal's room for the moment, she'll—"

"I can pop him nearby if that would help," Warlock offers, striding into the room. "Also, Shielder, when I get back if you can open that shield up a bit and I'll stun them."

"Oh. Thank you. _Warlock_." Lady Photon manages. Her eyes are a bit wild as they roll over to her daughter, and her diction is somewhat jerky.

Warlock tips his hat—which you realize sadly doesn't look nearly as cool as it feels—and comes over to you with an outstretched arm. "Hold on tight."

You don't really side-apparate yourself as much as both of you apparate to the lair and make it look like you side-apparated. Warlock gives a head-nod. "We thought we had 15 minutes left, but the ride's shaky. You'll get taken back 15 minutes and then feel pretty shitty for a couple of them. We might need to assume our safe time amounts are more like and hour-and-a-half to three-quarters. Cheers!" He pops out, and you crank the time-turner and go back in time.

…you curse your own gift for understatement. Instead of a smooth transition, you feel like someone's impaled you with a stick blender and set it on frappe. You don't puke, but you kind of wish you did, honestly. Nevertheless, you get changed and feel a bit better after a couple of minutes. Instead of heading directly back to continue your time loop, you pop over to where you had pulled Mook-Man's location out of Karen's head and verify he's still there, and discreetly _colloport_ some of the doors so he can't escape out the back, as well as throw an intruder ward on the only door left in the front so you'll know if someone uses it.

After that you pop back, take yourself to the lair and pop back _again_, this time arriving right as Manpower and Panacea come hurrying in. Amy looks around wildly, sees you, and narrows her eyes before moving to check out Karen under her Aunt's supervision. You head over to Shielder who's floating and watching the guys beat against his shield boredly. Manpower joins you.

"So, I have a question."

Eric ruffles his (recently dyed, you think) blue hair and sighs. "What?"

"Are you able to move your shields around?"

"Nah, but I can change the shape, which kinda works the same way."

You create a illusion of a ball between your hands. "So if you trapped someone—say Hookwolf—in a ball and made it do _this_," you have the ball expand, contract, and contort wildly, "would the person inside get all shook up like one of those snowglobes?"

"That's…a novel way to use his shield. Eric's pushed people against walls to trap them before, but I don't think he's tried that." The giant man looks at his son who has started laughing creepily. "Eric, Brutes only."

That doesn't even begin to wipe the smile off the teenager's face. Shielder reshapes the shield so you can stun the zombies and continues chuckling off-and-on to himself. At one point he says 'hamster ball' and sets himself off again.

When you rejoin the ladies, Amy has a hand on Karen's head and is making some disgusted faces. You squat down next to her. "So?"

"The stuff this guy uses feels gross. Without poking it too hard because I don't want to get near the slimy stuff, the more uhh… goo, the weaker and less mentally 'there' they are. Somehow there's a connection that's draining from them to him. Pretty sure it's just the strength, not the brains." She pulls back and scrubs her hands together until you hit her with a cleaning charm. "Frickin' disgusting, but she's clean."

Karen does, in fact, look miles better, if tired. You hit her with a diagnostic and see where Amy has cleaned the 'goo' you had noticed, and with it gone the connection was no longer there. "I think I got a decent link off of one of the zomboys so I can track the master down. It's like a mile that-a-way." You hook a thumb in the direction of the shed.

The healer stands up and cracks her knuckles. "I wanna punch him in his dumb mouth for injecting gross goo into people. I also don't want to deal with that goo more than I have to."

Lady Photon puts her hand on Amy's shoulder. "Manpower, Warlock, and you can go. See if you can convince the master to release his minions peacefully. If he won't, then convince him… _non-peacefully._"

Amy's smile is full of teeth. "Gladly."

Laserdream sighs. "I guess we'll wait here for the campus police and the PRT."

"We'll try and make it quick," you say. "The zombies should be out for a couple of hours."

You decide to cut to the case and apparate both capes near the shed so you only need to walk a short distance. Right after you land Manpower nudges his niece gently with a big elbow. "Nice night for a stroll with your boyfriend, huh? Just pretend I'm not here."

The local light level increases a bit from Amy's blush. "S-shut up Uncle Neil!"

You resign yourself to having confession time with Crystal later about all of this and just take Amy's hand. "So depending on how many zombies there are inside, d'you wanna just bust through the wall like the Kool-Aid man and scare the crap out of the master?"

The blonde giant laughs as you lead them towards the shed. "Can't, Sarah would kill me if I did that much property damage."

"Dude, I can fix that, remember?" Amy attempts to squeeze your fingers off, whether from amusement or trying to contain your destructive tendencies you're not sure.

Neil's eyes actually sparkle. "Holy crap, that's right!"

Stopping in front of the shed you shrug. "Four people inside over there," you point to the far side, "three feel weird, one feels normal-ish." You see the looks and give a twist of your free hand. "Human-presence detecting spell."

"Wizard," they chorus. Neil makes little wiggly finger-motions.

"Yep."

After exchanging a look, Manpower goes running right through a garage door screaming 'Oh Yeah!'. The two of you are right on his heels.

Mook-ma—it's _Kevin._ Kevin who apparently has no idea how to fight, because that punch was horribly sloppy. Manpower blocks it and then blinks when it apparently breaks the shield over one arm. You hit Kevin with a body-bind before Neil gets to see if Kevin's stolen strength comes with equal defense. The three zombies are girls, all three are familiar from the breakup scene a couple of weeks ago. A quick gander in their heads as you stun the girls for the moment shows that one is Kevin's ex, and two are the main reason for the breakup. The one with hipster-dyed grey hair happens to be Chloe Barker, Sarah's big sister.

With a seven-foot tall mountain of muscle, an edgy death-skeleton, and short, angry Amy looming overhim, an unfrozen Kevin spills all the details. He had gone to pick a fight with the guy his girlfriend Kim cheated on him with and got beaten pretty badly. He triggered not then, but in the aftermath when he felt that he had been betrayed by everyone. After some experimentation with his abilities he learned he could absorb 'essence' from people by either holding his palms on them or biting them.

…he's a vampire. Or at least vampire-themed. Fucking hell. In any case, he set out to get revenge on the guy, who happened to be on the baseball team and had a girlfriend in the same sorority as Kim was in—the same one that Chloe is in, and the same one Sarah is in. Turns out that some of the girls were stirring up shit and having two cheaters that could be gossiped about was ever-so-fun.

So naturally, Kevin decided that he was going to enslave the entire baseball team _and_ the entire Nu Tau sorority. It was, to him, only logical.

The three of you look at each other before you calmly conjure a large wooden stake and hand it over to Amy. "Aright man, here's what's going to happen. You're going to release all your minions and go into custody peacefully, or I'm gonna let Buffy the Vampire Slayer stake you." Amy happens to aim a _little_ lower than his heart.

Kevin might be super-strong, but the threat is good enough that he agrees. Under your watchful eyes, he un-mooks Chloe, Kim, and Janice. Amy checks them and declares them clean, as does your scan. It's not going to keep them from being put into observation for a while, but it's good to know he's capable of doing it.

So you re-stun everyone and after repairing the shed float everyone back to the dorm, which is now neck-deep in cops and PRT. You end up reconvening with the rest of New Wave out on the lawn, along with a bubble of zombies and Armsmaster. The Protectorate cape is taking and gesturing to people who aren't there, likely coordinating other PRT teams. You drop your cargo off and fill everyone in until Halbeard finishes up and joins you. He is silent as Amy fills in what she knows about Kevin's abilities. Once she's done he steps forward slightly.

"PRT squads have found two more groups, both of which appeared to have been successful at their tasks and were bringing hostages. All of the subjects involved have been encased in containment foam." He pauses for a moment and you can almost sense the momentary distraction as he looks at something in his heads-up display. "Due to a lack of space and the number of individuals involved, requests are currently being made to quarantine the affected in the nearby gym area." He turns to you and Amy. "Are both of you capable of curing the mastering?"

The two of you look at each other. Amy's face is already screwed up in distaste. "I haven't tried, but I'll attempt one while Panacea checks afterwards. She's already stated that the method of mastering turns her stomach, no reason to subject her to more of it than we have to. The master willingly withdrew his control over three subjects, so he could be monitored to do that and one of us could verify."

There's a twitch in the beard when he frowns. "While that would indeed be faster, there are a number of safety issues I can see with it…."

You and Amy share another look and she sighs. "Let's see how it works for you."

Actually, due to the mind-control being partially physical, you're able to 'cure' it pretty simply. Amy checks over your work and approves the first couple of cures, so you send her off to relax for a bit while you start healing the close to thirty people that Kevin'd managed to infect. You're not surprised that Armsy takes the time to come over and start up a conversation.

"The breadth of your abilities is very impressive," he starts, like you were in the middle of a conversation, "I would have focused narrowly on one or two applications at first."

You turn your head and barely manage to bull your way through the faceplate to form a weak legilimency connection. He seems to think you're a Tinker of some kind for some reason.

[X][Armsy] Write-in.

You hold up a hand and finish fixing the guy you were working on, waving him off to Amy and gesturing for the next people in line to wait a minute before turning to the blue-armored cape.

"If you're trying to dance around the subject, you have two proverbial left feet. I'm not going to be offended, just ask the question."

You register his faint hint of surprise, and something else that might be him reading information from his HUD. "As a fellow Tinker—"

Crossing both hands in an 'X' you cut him off with an error noise. "Weird, but I can see the logic—kinda. However, I am not a Tinker."

"…You're telling the truth." His voice becomes ever-so-slightly less friendly, "In that case, the Tinker who makes your equipment."

You repeat your 'bzzt' and 'X'. "None of that, now. No Tinker tricks, the armor is merely rich Corinthian leather." You raise some earth into a seat and make a second for him, then continue as he looks the bar-stool-looking chair over. "Look, I'm not gonna just spew details about me at you for no reason—it'd be like taking off my mask and whipping my dick out at the same time—but I'm an energy manipulator. I like to call it the 'Will-based Transmogrification Force'."

Armsmaster's hands twitch minutely on the haft of his halberd as he ponders that for a moment or two. The roll of emotions—incredulity, irritation, resignation—is pretty amusing. "You're claiming you do magic."

"Dude, three wrong answers, I could call down the next contestant. Look," you point to Laserdream floating nearby, "she has lasers and flight, he," Kevin, "injects goo in people and controls them, and you make mad scientist creations. I can't explain how she, he, or you accomplish that shit. For all I know she has mental switches in her brain for 'fly', 'shield', and 'pew-pew', he meditates on the sound of one hand clapping and maybe you eat materials and extrude parts out of your bellybutton like a 3D printer.

"I'm claiming I manipulate energy using my will to get effects. I'm cool with 'Will-based Transmogrification Force', or magic if you want to call it that. Pretend I'm calling functions from the underlying API of the universe if you'd prefer."

That actually gets an attempt at a smile from the dour cape. "Clarke's Law?"

You shrug, "Yeah, close enough for government work." Pausing for a moment you smirk behind your mask. "You _could_ say I was bitten by a radioactive Myrddin and mutated, turning into—"

"The good Myrddin?"

Freezing, you tilt your mask as you read _embarrassed nervousness_ and a few other connected emotions. You have a sneaking suspicion that Dragon was listening in and Armsy just stole his Canadian girlfriend's joke. You throw him two thumbs-up. "Nice, throwing your hat in the ring to be the next Archbishop of Banterbury, eh?"

Perhaps understandably, after that verbal sally the rest of the conversation breaks down and you get back to fixing the remaining minions as Armsmaster wanders off, possibly to put himself in M/S confinement for cracking a joke.

It is once again late as hell when you finally wrap things up and everyone is quarantined. Amy is staying with Crystal to remain 'on-site' enough for a quick response. You're not at the level where the PRT is willing to call you in in similar circumstances, so you bow out and get naked in your lair before putting your civvies on and hiding back in Crystal's dorm.

You don't wait long as the key rattles in the lock and Amy storms in and stops in front of you. The choker is dark against the flushed skin of her neck. "Hand." Crystal follows her cousin in and locks the door.

Widening your eyes and pressing your palm against your chest you try to force a blush. "L-lewd, right in front of onee-san?"

Her flush seems a bit more like irritation and less like embarrassment. "Fucking. Hand. Now."

When she touches you, she's going to realize you're not a normal cape—you know you don't have a corona pollentia. She's unlikely to take no for an answer, so all you're left to do is.

[X][Hands] Take her hand. Answer questions truthfully (you're a wizard)

"Alright." You crack your knuckles and your wrist, using the motions to throw up silencing spells and a _muffalatio_. "D'you want to hold Crystal's hand too and make this a threesome?"

"_Jaaaaaames…"_

Pushing yourself to your feet you cup her hand and start to bring it up to your lips to kiss when her eyes flutter closed and her knees buckle under her. You somewhat-smoothly levitate her into your arms instead and sit down on the bed, throwing a look over at Crystal, who hurries over. "Did she just pass out?"

Amy's hands coming up and cupping your face answer before you could, but you continue anyway. "No, I think she just got overwhelmed." You're about to say more when one of her hands clamps your lips together, so you merely roll your eyes over to your girlfriend and shrug.

It's probably a minute later that Amy looks up from your arms and frowns at you. "You don't have a corona pollentia or gemma." Crystal makes a noise, but you keep looking at the healer.

"I don't."

"But you can…" she looks around and wiggles her fingers after taking them off your face.

"Yep."

"So you're—"

"A wizard."

Crystal interrupts, "So when you told me you called yourself a wizard and you did magic?

You shake your head. "I hadn't actually scanned myself for one at that point. With or without one, I'm still weird in comparison to what we've learned in class. I seem to be able to learn entirely new tricks, not just changing existing stuff for one, and things I do are way too wide to be a grab-bag. So wizard, one way or the other."

"You have some kind of energy that like, flows all through you." Amy comments, "It, I dunno, swirled, swelled, something, when you caught me. It feels nice, real calm."

You look over at Crystal. "I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no, I'm not."

Your girlfriend gains a toothed smile. "Can you do the 'Mr. Magic Hands' thing?"

With a little shuffling the healer is laying across both of your laps while you lean against the wall. You hold your hand out and look at Amy, "Hand."

"Jerk," she laces her fingers with yours but can't completely hide her blush. You just smile and hit her with a soft touch of magic. Rather than squeaking or startling or anything loud like that her legs shake a bit in Crystal's lap for a second as her eyes lock on you and then roll up as she sighs and goes limp.

"The answer is yes, this time she did."

"Holy shit, Ames must be super sensitive to your magic."

You look over at her. "I think that's the first time you actually called the stuff I do magic."

She leans over and kisses you. "I thought you were just being a dork." She kisses you again as if in apology. "A cute dork, but a dork."

"Gee, thanks." You feel Amy's awake again, but staying quiet. "Any other questions about it?"

"Nah, not tonight. I've got plenty of time to ask more. You, Amy?" When the brunette in your lap turns away, embarrassed, she shrugs at you. "Get some sleep, I'll hit you up tomorrow—no today, later this afternoon—and we'll check in on Sierra, since she's the only one not under quarantine. I think everyone except Karen will probably be out sometime Friday."

You kiss your girlfriend and run your hands (without magic) through Amy's hair for a moment before apparating back to your apartment. It's been a weird fucking day, and you fall asleep as soon as you can banish your clothes and flop onto the bed.


	30. Week 5, Part II (Feb 17-18)

You're tired enough that you let Taylor set the mood during the jog. She's largely quiet, but you do chat a bit as she continues to come out of her shell. You even get a shoulder touch as she turns to head back to her house, along with an embarrassed wave at the familiarity.

Popping to your lair instead of your apartment, you scry Lisa again, and this time you get to be a Twilight vampire, creepily staring at a sleeping girl. Lisa's apartment is actually more on the southern coast than Downtown proper, but either way you make a note and remind yourself to try again this evening so you can hopefully nail down the Undersider's hideout.

After class you invade Sia's backup apartment. It's not in either her real or assumed names, and is probably her version of Diego's bolt holes. There's minimal furniture, some frozen stuff in the freezer, a microwave, and a laptop still in the box. Even the bathroom only has little travel sizes of soap and shampoo and stuff. The place is just lived-in enough to show that Sia probably crashes here to check in on the place, but otherwise it's left alone.

The drive with the blackmail is slung underneath the bed, actually inside of the box spring. It's regular USB, although you'll need to download the encryption software that was used. Not much else to this place unless you want to take some women's club-clothes or her coke mirror.

[X][Sia] Take the laptop

You ponder just leaving for a moment before yoinking the laptop. If she's not gonna use it, then you may as well. After checking the rest of the apartment once again to make sure you didn't miss anything you pop back to your lair, but bring the laptop back with you to your apartment. You take the time to unbox it (and it was still sealed and everything) and have it start downloading updates so you can watch awesome blackmail material later.

Diego's second hideaway is actually pretty deep in what would be considered ABB territory down in the south. Once again it's a garage, this time backed up on a stomwater culvert that should probably be dry, but instead always has 6-10 feet of water sitting in the middle, sluggishly draining out into the ocean.

That would explain both the Tinked-up vehicles taking up space—a dirt bike that would work on the dry sides, and a jetski to escape out into the water. Both made to be quiet and have extended range, Diego had gotten them out of Squealer for helping her after Skidmark had gotten rough with her about a year ago. He had helped her get some medical attention and kept her in drugs, and she had gifted both to him during her recovery.

Other than the spiffy rides, this garage also has money and guns, as well as a selection of uniforms of local businesses, three spare phones, and a small sample-platter of drugs. There's the expected weed, heroin, meth and E, but also one tiny ampoule of Red Sun, and a hallucinogen called 'Deep Web' that had ended up being sent back to whatever drug Tinker made it because the trips tended to be violent and _long_—like three or four days long.

[X][Diego] Take everything

Once again you loot the entire place. There's no hidden stuff this time, but you do take the time to create a loot room on the bottom floor of your lair and park the bike and jetski there, along with the other bike and restored car.

By the time you've accomplished that, Crystal is out of classes and you meet back up with her and you both find Sierra in the library. The dreadlocked girl is supposedly working, but instead seems to be absentmindedly checking books in and staring out into space.

Hugs from you and Crystal focus her back up and you end up explaining what exactly happened the previous night. Once she hears the actual story she calms down a lot.

"All the RAs told me was that there was a cape that mastered a bunch of people and the girls were part of it. We were locked in here until after 1am anyhow when they finally lifted the shelter-in-place order."

Crystal shakes her head. "Karen will probably be kept longer, but from what Amy said the rest of them will probably be out tomorrow morning-ish."

You reach out and pull the black girl to her feet and hold a hand out to your girlfriend. "Let's get some dinner in you and let you relax for a bit."

Before you go to bed you scry Lisa again and see her hunched over a laptop in her cape costume. Brian and Alec are around, and the three of them are having a caring, calm discussion arguing about shit.

"-not on board with this, Lisa. Kaiser and Lung are both going to be grabbing whatever Merchant turf they can. They'll have people out on every corner, we'll get Rune or Oni Lee called down on us."

Tattletale keeps typing and doesn't even bother taking her eyes off the screen. "It won't be that bad. We sweep over the rooftops, loot the place of money and records, and destroy any drugs. We even get to keep any cash we find."

Brian sighs, "And how many places does he want hit?"

"Three, and not until next week. That master that cropped up at the university has the PRT stirred up and they've changed patrol paths. Again."

You pull back a bit and find the location of their lair and mark it on your map before sleeping the sleep of the satisfied.

Friday mid-morning with all your other chores taken care of, you finally get around to learning how to create portkeys. The magical approach is similar, enough that you're sure that if you didn't know how to apparate this would turn into a multi-day research project, but instead you're creating simple portkeys after a half-hour of practice.

Your major takeaway is that when creating a timed portkey is that it's based off of passage of time and not some kind of absolute clock. You had though it was 11:45 and created a portkey timed to go off at 11:47. When you checked your phone and saw it was actually 11:51, the portkey didn't suddenly go off as the time had already passed, it took roughly two minutes before the test hoop had disappeared. Also, there's no momentum imparted, although you can totally see why people fall over—you_ feel_ like you're spinning, but blocking that out leaves you stock-still on landing.

You have an email from Quinn Calle telling you your busking license is in in the name of 'Warlock', so you stop by and pick it up from him. While you're there you drop off some additional questions you had and get information about how the plastic surgery stuff is going.

"First off, let's agree to never say 'plastic surgery' again. That term involves certifications which you don't have. Also, you're not really doing surgery, per se, so we're going to drop that as well. 'Cosmetic alterations' and 'body modification' are the terms that need to be used. A friend who does medical law is drafting some agreements that prospective clients would need to sign; once they're done we'll walk through them and what they mean.

"What would likely end up happening is that you would need to provide free or discounted alterations to one or two fairly famous people who would spread the word for you. After that appointments could be booked however you'd like—here in one of the offices, we could find you a small office somewhere else, or someone could rent a suite in a hotel nearby and you could provide service there.

"Separately, I'd like to register your mask and maybe just that triangle-circle-bar symbol as official cape symbols. That would prevent others from profiting from them or claiming that you endorse things by their presence. Is that acceptable?"

[X][Symbol] Register your mask and the Deathly Hallow as symbols

You sit still as Quinn takes pictures of your mask, then has you sketch the Hallows-symbol on some of the paperwork. "It's effectively trademarking. Not that I expect it to be an issue, but if someone puts out 'Warlock' action figures or what-have-you you have a reason to shut them down. Also, it may come in handy to have a recognizable symbol for brand recognition when you're doing healing or plas—_cosmetic alterations_."

Friday evening finds S Klub minus Karen reunited and back in the common room. Amy, Crystal, Vicky and you are all along and keeping the girls' spirits up with a comedy movie or two and some non-strip poker. You _do_ become 'that dude' when Savannah brings out an acoustic guitar and the two of you trade off on playing—your skills from Randy start off somewhat rusty, but you improve as you go.

Crystal does pull you aside at one point and tells you that she's taking Taylor out to Cafe Sofrito, and then to the Boardwalk to do some shopping. "…and I want her seen in public with me. I don't know if whatever bullying seems to be going on will _stop_, but once we've been seen being friends I can start poking my nose into things and it's just me 'being concerned about my friend'. I was going to take Susan along with me since the two of them look similar so she could offer some clothes advice, you wanna come with? Maybe Warlock can show up at lunch as well and draw more attention?"

[X][Shopping] Go shopping as James, show up for lunch as Warlock (takes ~30 time turner minutes).

She gives you a wink. "Also, assuming no crazy stuff happens, you're invited to my room tomorrow night too. I have something hopefully pretty pleasant to show you."


	31. Saturday, Feb 19

This time when you roll out of bed to jog with Skitter, Crystal has an idea of what you're doing, so there's no mumbly-cavewoman stuff. Instead, she uses her flight to slither off the bed like some kind of sexy blonde snake as she curls around you. You'd gotten up a bit before you normally do for just this reason, as it takes your girlfriend a while before she becomes fully human.

Soon enough, though, you've made it to Taylor's neighborhood and actually get something resembling a smile from the girl. She's still stressed, but that's not gonna change immediately. She's noticeably nervous about this whole 'actually interacting with people' thing, but Crystal secures a promise that she'll be ready around 11 as you go your separate ways.

Crystal heads off to check in on the girls and round up Susan, while you place a very nice hat on the petrified elf you found and start in on the mandrake draught you'll need to fix him—or her. All the scans you've done seem to show that the elf was in good health before being petrified, so you don't think there'll be any major issues.

One issue is that you only have one other mandrake left from the stores you've recovered. It's something you might bring up with Amy, she might be able to assist with cloning or even just making the plants fruit more.

In any case, all of the ingredient prep gets done, and you accomplish the majority of the potion creation before you need to meet up with Crystal and Susan.

At Crystal's dorm you're pulled inside and immediately confronted with a doe-eyed, faintly embarrassed brunette while your girlfriend hovers over your shoulder.

Susan's fiddling with her phone as she meets your eyes. "James, um… look. Back a couple of weeks ago, when I… y'know…" She trails off and holds her phone up. When you take it and look the videos and pictures she took of your cock and the blowjob she gave you are queued up. Now unwilling to meet your eyes, you can still see her crying as she looks at the floor. "I shouldn't have taken the pictures or video. I shared them with Crystal the next day and that was wrong too. You can delete all of them! I never told anyone else about any of it, so the other girls don't know! I'm sorry!"

Tilting her head up so you can establish a mental link you see that her apology is sincere, although Susan and your girlfriend have bonded somewhat over the erotic photos and she would hate to lose them. Whenever the two girls have discussed you, however, it's been in private, away from the rest of S Klub. Looking over your shoulder at Crystal and brushing her mind lightly shows that she hopes you'll accept the apology because she's fond of the curly-haired girl, and seems to be trying to learn her deepthroat skills from her.

[X][Susan] Let her keep the photos and accept her apology

You sigh and tap the video, scrubbing it and turning the sound up so that Susan's loud, sloppy swallows echo in the room. Crystal pants softly in your ear and Susan's apologetic gaze goes fuzzy as you feel a blast of arousal from her.

"While I accept the apology, it'd be a good idea to find out how to fuzz my face. This getting out would look bad for Crystal, even if she and I weren't actually together at the time. Might wanna use some kind of encryption too." You let a smirk grow. "I think Amy knows how to do stuff like that, perhaps you should ask her for help."

Susan takes the phone back from you and slides it in a pocket before wrapping her arms around you, whispering her thanks into your chest. Crystal joins in the three-way hug from the back, almost purring as she nibbles at your ear. There's a promise of something between the three of you that you're eager to see the result of at some point—hopefully soon.

Rolling up to Taylor's house you're left to drive the car while Crystal and Susan talk to Danny. You're grateful that you're saved from the interaction, 'cause if you heard him say 'kiddo' you might dissolve into a puddle of horrible fanon. It takes a bit, but the three girls finally emerge from the house, tossing Taylor's stained backpack in the front while all three of them pile in the back. Introductions between Susan and Taylor have apparently already been made, as both of the older girls are already working to draw the younger cape out of her shell. You offer Taylor a smile over your shoulder as you chauffeur the girls downtown, parking in a garage that still has battle damage and your little quartet making your way to Cafe Sofrito.

The place is back up and bustling, although you notice one the glass windows you repaired has a star-shaped crack that's probably a bullet hole. Doesn't look like it went through, luckily enough.

Crystal, bless her stage-managing heart, had apparently arranged some of this with Rosa and/or Maria, because the four of you are given seats around one end of your counter/table thing that were previously reserved. You and Taylor are on the edges, with Crystal next to you and Susan next to Taylor, highlighting just how similar their hair is. They couldn't _quite_ pass as sisters, but you could make an argument for them being cousins.

After the initial surprise and people taking video of Laserdream dies down you order your food, but Crystal takes the time to add on an extra drink and a 'to-go' order that she tells Maria will be picked up by a masked man. Taylor is obviously confused, but luckily manages not to fall off her chair when dark smoke coalesces into Warlock outside a minute or two after your drinks arrive.

The black-clad cape causes a wave of silence as he walks to the doors and holds them open for a couple that's leaving before sweeping inside himself. He doesn't make it more than a half-dozen steps before Rosa suddenly appears and hugs him, drawing a chuckle from Crystal next to you. The short owner and the cape seem to have a discussion before he walks over to the window with the crack and flicks his finger against it from the inside, causing a ringing chime as the crack repairs itself.

Walking over, Warlock stops at the end of the table and inclines his head. "Ladies." He lets the silence linger for a moment before turning to you slightly. "Oh, and you."

You snort at him. "I'm going to tell Amy how you act in public."

Warlock twitches a bit. "Ah, no lad, I don't want zits all over my face, thanks." Leaning over the table a bit he takes Crystal's hand and mimes a kiss to the back, repeating the gesture with a wide-eyed Susan and a pale Taylor. As he goes to conjure a chair you grab his hand and bring it up for a kiss to your lips. "Enchante, mademoiselle."

Snorting, he finishes conjuring the chair and sits down. "Alright, you got me. May I ask who these lovely ladies are?"

You make introductions as Crystal pushes the extra drink in front of him. Warlock hangs his hat on the back of the chair (and you notice your hair is a slightly different color than usual) and looks at the glass as he taps it against the mouth of the mask. "…Thanks." Taylor holds up a straw sheepishly and the upward twitch of the mask gives an impression of a smile. "You're a lifesaver, Taylor."

Looking around, you notice your group is the absolute cynosure of the cafe, with everyone either paying attention or actually filming as you interact with the girls. You ask yourself what you've been up to since 'that craziness on Wednesday', and Warlock manages to spin a story about how he's decided to hire a lawyer. It'll be interesting to see if Quinn mentions the comments about his 'shark-like smile' the next time you meet him.

Amazing you, Taylor actually involves herself in the conversation. "Uh, not that you need to answer, but what kind of armor is that? It looks like leather?"

"It is! I've made some alterations to it of course, but I felt it was better than just spandex." You feel Crystal shift next to you but he turns to her before she can say anything. "If you want to see a guy in spandex, talk to your boyfriend, not me."

You laugh. "You're just jealous my ass would look better."

"Nah, leather pants are the best. Pick up a pair and pose for your girl, she'll love it."

"Eh, maybe latex?"

You ignore the soft coo from beside you as Warlock taps the nose of his mask. "That could work too. Find a pair and we'll take a picture for the ladies, they can vote on which one of us is better."

"Oh yeah!" Crystal interjects, "I'll let Amy know, she can take the pictures." Susan and even Taylor look to be in agreement.

You just point at the cape. "This is your fault, you know."

Running a finger over the mask's eyeholes he draws on eyebrows that then wiggle at you before disappearing in puffs of smoke. "You'll thank me later."

The food arrives around that point and Warlock uses the bustle to slip out of the seat and collect the takeout order. "I'll leave you all to your meal, 'cause the mask stays on."

"Always?" Susan asks archly.

"Always."

"Aw, that's sad," she laments.

There's a sound like a door unlocking as the middle bars of the mouth slide aside and about four inches of tongue snakes out and wiggles.

Tongue retracted and hat back on his head, the cape heads for the door, pushing it open and burning into smoke as soon as he's through.

Susan is bright red, with Taylor next to her actually cradling her cheeks like she's trying to hide their own burn. Turning to Crystal, the both of you burst out laughing as soon as your eyes meet causing the two girls on the other side of the table to deflate in embarrassment.

You keep an eye on the time and use the restroom with plenty of spare time as you meet yourself in the small stall. Applying a little wandless charm you both wiggle half a foot of tongue at each other while laughing silently before you pop to the lair to turn back time.

Not long after you return to the table lunch is over, and after you all get back in the car you travel to the Boardwalk. Well, Boardwalk-adjacent. Most of the shops on the beach itself are crazy-expensive, but even a block off the Boardwalk proper are nicer little boutiques that aren't charging an arm and a leg for things. Susan and Crystal gang up on Taylor a bit, and the younger girls hoodie and baggy jeans are frequently exchanged for a dress or at least more form-fitting clothes without being super tight. Once it becomes obvious to the girl that neither of her new friends are going to make rude comments she seems to start enjoying herself as well, which is gratifying to see.

You're mostly a pack mule at this point, and are checking up on the postings about your earlier appearance when you get a weird shiver down your spine. It takes a second before you realize that you haven't suddenly grown spider-sense, someone has breached the ward-line of your apartment and are inside. You make an excuse to Crystal about checking out a store on your own and slip off into a side alley where you're alone.

There's only one intruder, but the intruder-detection ward doesn't tell you more than that. You…


	32. Intruder Alert

You smokejump to an empty roof and pop to your lair. You've gotten smart about the quick costume changes and set up an armor stand so a flick of your hand and a switching spell has you re-clothed, and one more has you disillusioned.

Returning to your apartment you transfigure yourself a perch in the corner and pull a Batman as you stare at the door. It had taken a couple of minutes to excuse yourself and find a quiet spot, so you really only have to wait a minute or two before you hear a key slide into the locks.

The guy that comes in is wearing a jumpsuit with a patch that proclaims he's from 'Betty's Plumbing', and his name is supposedly 'Ralph'. He has a toolbag in one hand that he sets down, along with a little wheeled cart that has various repair supplies—some PVC pipe, toilet repair kits, etc. He doesn't look at you, hidden as you are, but you force a connection when he looks your way after locking the door.

David Begum is one of Coil's mercs. While he's no slouch at the rooty-tooty-point-and-shooty part of the job, he much prefers the sneaky parts. And he's good at it, as you browse his mind. He's placed bugs in the Undersiders' hideout, and at least one of Tattletale's personal hideouts, along with multiple other more public locations that Coil's directed him to bug.

This is something of a rush job for him, as some of the people Coil has doing intelligence gathering pointed out that you were on video as being out in public. David was called in, given your address and the job and dispatched by a curt and somewhat tired-sounding supervillian. You wonder if all of the recent craziness with the gangs isn't straining Coil's shard's binary timeline emulation-thingy. It'd be hard to time _everything_ so you could always have one safe timeline while you do just one thing differently.

In any case, Dave-o is supposed to bug your apartment to get audio. Typically the audio recorders don't connect to the internet or transmit live—that could lead to them being detected too easily. Instead, a spy van will cruise up and park while all of the audio gets copied to the recording equipment inside at some ungodly hour of the night. Some basic testing will be done to make sure the whole thing works, but it's always possible that the connections won't work all the way to the street and he'll have to come back out and do some more work. Also, while it wasn't in the directions, he's planning on including a video camera of his own pointed at your bed, because why spy on people if you can't get your jollies at the same time? He's done it before, and it makes perfect blackmail material.

Mr. Begum is unarmed, and expects to throw a handful of recording devices in various spots and be in and out in half an hour or less. He has an apartment of his own where he keeps the video recordings he's not supposed to have, and knows Coil's base location, which jives with the general area you thought it was from scrying Tattletale.

You…

[X][Spy] Let him put everything up, disable it later, stay hidden

[X][Spy2] Mark him to track down later

You flick a tracker on Dave and—as much as you'd prefer not to—let him put things up. You do make some nudges in his brain telling him 'you're out of time, _hurry_' and 'that's a perfect hiding place, he'll never notice', which will make things easy to pretend to find later. Browsing his mind while he works, you also pull in some knowledge of counter-surveillance that will make it difficult for him to come back in later, and you could even pass it off as 'found the cameras, got paranoid'. Honestly, the simplest and most blatant will be getting a security cam pointed towards the door. It'll go off on movement and alert you via text message. Workable and obvious, so that even getting rid of the camera doesn't mess with the evidence.

Dave finishes up in less than 15 minutes with you pushing him along, and makes some obvious changes to things in the apartment so you can 'discover' that someone's been in there. While you're at it, you make a note to move one of those cameras you got for testing your disillusionment over when you're done shopping.

After connecting back up with the ladies they drag you to a… well, it's like Hot Topic was a fancy boutique store. With the help of a mohawked, multiply-pierced saleswoman, Crystal hunts down a pair of (fake) leather pants and presents them to you.

So you change. Her disappointed face when you walk out with your shirt hanging loose and hiding your ass makes you laugh. You proceed to peel the shirt off by stretching your torso and flexing your abs and pose, stalking up to and around your girlfriend, pushing her mouth closed with one finger, winking at Susan and raising an eyebrow at a furiously blushing Taylor before doing your best strut back to the changing area and flipping the door closed behind you.

When you emerge again you are told those pants simply _must_ be purchased. You do, although who the hell knows when you'll have a chance to wear them. That seems to cap off the shopping, and you're dropped off at your apartment while the girls go to help Taylor deal with her new purchases.

You take the time to fix Taylor's backpack and enchant it to repel liquids, as well as put a mild notice-me-not keyed to the girl herself so hopefully her stuff will be ignored by the Trio.

With that done you get stuck in to learning some more warding. With the intrusion earlier you'd like to be able to slap wards up that are a little more… vigorous than just detection.

And what you find is that with the increased Runic knowledge you've gained from the ritual magic dump is that things really click this time. Pulling out the notebooks you used for your original notes on warding, you immediately find improvements in the rune schemes on the warstones which would make stones more powerful and able to handle more spells, as well as allowing you to tune the distance that items bleed from the ward stones better. Now you actually might be able to put up muggle-repelling wards and not affect your neighbors!

You also figure out how to add exceptions to wards so you could put up the same repelling wards but add Crystal or Amy to them so they wouldn't be effected. Well, you still need to check if squibs are effected, but the idea is there. But the major breakthrough is cracking the logic of adding Unplottability. You don't know how useful it will be on an apartment that people already know the location of, but you could add it to your lair so no one would be stumbling on the joint.


	33. Saturday, Feb 19, Part II

You walk into your apartment and set down your bag like you would normally. After wandering a bit you stop and mutter, "What the hell is that noise?". Some similar moving around and you 'start noticing' things out of place. You give it another minute or so before you 'find' the first bug.

Your playacted anger is loud and vehement as you find the various bugs and crush them (really, you just remove the batteries). You do set up the security cam to upload snapshots of your door opening to you, as you're not sure if Coil will bother sending someone out immediately or not. Audio logs were grabbed based on relevance of information, and who knows where you rate on that list.

Even though you know that the apartment is safe, when Crystal and Amy arrive you let them know what was found and do the cooking there, but you all adjourn to your lair for the actual eating and discussion.

You transfigure a small circular table for a more intimate experience as you dish up dinner and look at your tablemates. "Alright ladies, lemme have it."

The cousins share a look before Amy starts. "So, what's up with the wand thing?"

Pulling your wand and rolling it through your fingers you hum. "I needed it to make magic work at first. Now I can do most things without it, but it seems to assist with detail work, like glasses help to focus so people can see."

Crystal cuts in. "So other than teleporting and healing and stuff, what other things have you come up with?"

"Well, one of the things I had done originally was figure out warding—you know, putting up a barrier that would do things. That's actually how I knew someone was breaking in to the apartment, I had a ward up that told me someone was trying to get in, so I watched what they did and where they put things. I'm probably going to put up stronger things that won't let people through in the future—wait, that reminds me of something." You digress into an explanation of 'squib' and 'nonmagical' before showing the girls how you create a small ward stone with a muggle-repelling ward. It ends up not affecting either squib, although both of them can feel a vague 'go away' or 'I shouldn't be here' feeling, it's very minor. You'll need to use general repelling wards rather than rely on muggle-repellers to get everyone it seems.

"While we're testing stuff, I've figured out how to enchant things with something I'm calling a 'portkey'. It'll yank you from wherever you are to a pre-programmed point. If you're willing I'll add that to your anklet and necklace so you can get here as an emergency escape plan. Ooh, also a second portkey phrase that dumps you at the Pelham house so you're not stuck here."

The girls come up with emergency phrases and you test with Amy's first, then pop Crystal to her dorm room and perform a sweep of the place for bugs using Dave's knowledge before hopping back. (It seems clean, luckily.)

You arrive back in your main lair room to find yourself alone, Crystal joining you after a moment. "Uh, Amy?"

The healer comes out with your athame in her hands. "Are you sacrificing people to Satan?"

Hurrying forward, you wince and make sure she hasn't stabbed herself. "Okay, let me explain what I call ritual magic…."

One explanation later and you have two pairs of wide eyes staring at you. "You can_ give _people powers?"

"_Hypothetically_," you emphasize, holding your hands out. "I've only done one ritual and all it did was make me feel like I had done a brisk spring cleaning on my brain. While I _think_ all of it will work, I'm leery of just trying it on someone before I test it on myself first."

Amy sighs and rests her head against her cousin's. "Why is he such an idiot, Crys?"

Crystal furrows her brow. "Why d'you think he's an idiot?"

"Because he's talking about doing this crazy hardcore magic shit with _no one around to make sure he's okay!"_ the brunette rants before grabbing your shoulders and speaking to you slowly like you're a small child. "Please do not do things like this without someone who could at least get help if something goes wrong." There's an underlying worry in her tone that makes you think she'd consider it a personal failing if you were hurt and she wasn't around.

"No promises Ames—I'm doing this in my spare time during the week and stuff, I'm not going to be pulling you or Crystal out of school so I can test things. Besides, once I do a ritual myself I can work on making it work for others, not the other way around."

Amy turns and puts her hands on her hips. "How about we do the cleansing thing to see what it's like? Either all three of us, or you and one of us while the other watches. It's safe, right?"

You nod, "Yeah, it's totally safe. One issue though—" you summon the robes from the ritual room and hold them out to the girls, "—it's these or naked."

Holding the robe up to the light Amy gulps nervously. "It kinda looks like it's naked either way." She rolls her eyes to you. "Are you serious?"

"Totally serious. I did the ritual naked, wearing clothes felt like things would go badly, and as much as you seem to think I'm crazy and doing demon summoning or whatever, I'm following my gut on things like this."

"Uh-huh. Crystal? Crystal!"

Your girlfriend has shucked off her clothes and is in the process of putting the robe on, although you can see the silhouette of her toned body easily through the thin fabric. "I wouldn't mind the naked thing, but let's use the robes." She wraps an arm around Amy's shoulders and guides her into the area you've partitioned off for your bed, so you shrug and switch your clothes out for the robe.

Crystal and Amy take a couple of minutes to return, and when they do Amy is all but hiding behind her cousin. Even still, you can see her peeking around at you, and the robes are sheer enough that you can see the smattering of dark freckles on her face continue down onto her shoulders and cleavage.

You do your best to project professionalism even though you have two incredibly sexy women in effectively nothing in front of you and you're about to doing weird magic. Keeping your eyes on theirs you explain exactly what's going to happen, step by step. Rather than do three individual rituals, you're going to do the same one you did earlier in the week, albeit with the layout slightly differently. Assuming the blood doesn't freak them out too much you'll work on the separate rituals in one thing part in the future, after they've gotten some experience with the language.

The layout this time has the three of you equidistant as an upside-down triangle inside the ritual circle itself, with the silver bowls set up as a regular triangle around you. With a cautioning look towards the ladies not to interfere until you tell them it's okay, you slice your wrist and bleed into the bowl. Crystal manages to contain herself, but Amy's indrawn breath is loud in the otherwise silent space. You flick your eyes over to her and her hands are curled into fists like she's barely restraining herself from lunging at you to heal you.

Once you invoke the reagents and have the purple clouds above you you step into the center of the circle and gesture them to join you. Both seem to be a little in awe of the roiling purified magic above them. "Ready?" They both give you firm nods, and you unleash the cleansing magic and feel the calm as it pours down over you.

You keep your attention on Amy and see tension and stress almost boil away from her frame, her shoulders raising. Before the first drops of magic finish trailing down her body she's crying, although her wide smile tells you they're happy tears. Catching Crystal's attention you both step up to the shorter brunette and fold her into an embrace between you. Amy buries her head in your chest for a moment and squeezes you tight before turning and looking up at her taller cousin, taking her cheeks in her hands, and kissing her chastely. She murmurs something to Crystal that is lost in the patter of the magical rain around you before turning back to you and drawing you down to her and kissing you as well. There's no desire and no passion in the kiss—instead it is soft and sweet, with just the faintest promise held within it.

"Thank you," she whispers against your lips.

The three of you stand in the cleansing rain for some time, holding each other and exchanging little words of care and affection. Both parahumans look like something has been lifted from their shoulders, Amy much more than Crystal. When you finally dismiss the magic you don't feel nearly as drained as the first time, perhaps because you didn't feed as much of the excess magic to the rune circle.

Once the ritual is completed, you peek inside Amy's mind and find that the gnawing emptiness that so worried you is, if not _gone_, then no longer so _empty_. This ritual didn't cure years of exposure to Vicky's unwitting Mastering, nor did it magically put a girl who had been feeling nothing back on a totally even keel, but she is now _feeling_. Feeling fondness for you and her cousin, a slowly growing arousal, and even better, a bit of happiness and contentment with life.

Despite not feeling tired, the three of you end up lounging on the large bed you keep in your lair. Amy has become much more touchy-feely, even if you get the impression that she's not quite ready to make her first real kiss with you part of a threesome. You and Crystal on the other hand have been keeping the curvy little healer within arms reach if not actual skin contact of one or both of you since you changed back into regular clothes.

"So are you gonna explain how you're speaking some weird-sounding language?"

"It felt right to say. I did some searching online for a couple of the words and after a lot of guessing, I think I'm somehow speaking Proto-Indo-European. Like, no one's putting up videos of how to speak it, but it seems like it might match up. I don't know enough of the international phonetic alphabet to tell you if I'm actually right, though."

Amy looks like she's going to follow up with another question, shrugs, then lays her head in your lap. "Whatever, don't care. I'm interested in the Brute rating, honestly."

"I'd—we'd," you correct after they look at you, "have to test how much armoring you get. I'm feeling like it'd stop handgun fire, but I'm not completely certain of that."

"Even if it made us ten percent more damage resistant, that's ten percent more than we have now, you know," your girlfriend points out reasonably.

"Point. I'd still prefer to do it first and _then_ do a trial with one of you, and from what I'm gathering something like that will knock you on your proverbial ass—like you'd still be able to do stuff, but even if it turns out perfectly fine for me, I'm not going to be up to do another one for a couple of days."

"We trust you not to screw it up, James. Could we all do this protection ritual together?"

"Yeah, but expect it to take like three hours or so, then we're probably going to want to nap for a bit afterwards. Fitting it in tomorrow might not be doable; we'd have to find the reagents, then there's the runes, then you'd need to learn the chants." You sigh and run your hands through Amy's hair as Crystal leans against you. "And the robes wouldn't work—the runes would be on your chest and back."

Amy twitches a bit at the revelation that she wouldn't have even the barest shield against her nakedness. "S-still worth it."

It's getting to be late enough that Amy's expected back home, so she and Crystal are going to test their portkeys again. Crystal kisses you and tells you she'll see you in a hour or so before winking and leaning forwards to whisper in your ear. "She's probably gonna try and kiss you, show her how you really do it."

A quick blast of legilimency tells you only that Crystal and Amy have come to some kind of agreement that you're gonna want the details of later, but your girlfriend steps back and portkeys away to her parents' house and you turn to see a shy Amy shifting from foot to foot and staring at the ground trying to warm up her sudden case of cold feet. She won't be trying _anything_ on her own.

Stepping up and wrapping your arms around the short healer, you just let her acclimate to your presence for a moment before moving back just enough that you can look down and tilt her face up. Her dark brown eyes meet yours for just a split second before flicking around to take in the rest of your face, while your own gaze is drawn to the sliver of pink tongue that sneaks out to wet her lips.

With one hand around her waist you bring the other up to brush against her choker as you slide it back to cup the back of her head. At the first brush of your lips on hers she gives a shuddery sigh and brings her arms up to cradle your head. You draw her up to you and she wraps a leg around yours as you deepen your kiss, flicking your tongue against her lips. Her mouth opens and Amy's own sweet tongue tangles with yours as you gladly sink into each other's embrace.

When you finally separate Amy is flushed and breathing hard but can't stop smiling at you. You kiss that beautiful smile and then again on her nose, getting a giggle. She pulls you down in a mirror of the kiss from the ritual, but this one is _all_ desire and passion before she steps back and caresses the choker that marks her neck before whispering her command phrase and disappearing.


	34. Sat's night's all right for fi-fucking

You manage to find yourself an hour later in Crystal's dorm room wearing only a pair of boxer briefs as requested by your girlfriend. She's straddling you while the two of you kiss and chat.

"So you said this Amy thing and Susan coming over are related, but I'm not following, honestly."

Crystal giggles a bit and reaches down to adjust your cock so that points up over your bellybutton, then starts to grind you as she responds. "Look, I realized on Monday around the time I managed to use my feet to give me a facial," she smirks at your laugh, "that you're pretty calm about experimenting and stuff. I've… kinda wanted to try different things, and all of this is part of it." She kisses you fiercely, nipping at your bottom lip. "I want to watch Susan take your cock all the way down her throat and try to teach me how to do it too. I want you to fuck us both, cum on our faces and ruin us. But I also want you to seduce Amy and her about it from her as she throws herself on my old bed and sighs like you're a prince from a storybook."

"I assume that just happened?" you ask wryly.

"She was so out of it she almost tripped on the stairs, and once she got up to the bed and started telling me about it she kicked her feet behind her like a middle schooler with a crush."

You pull her down and kiss her roughly. "We're gonna need rules about this, Crys, or everyone's gonna get hurt."

The blonde presses herself full-length against you and nibbles at your jaw. "I know. But for tonight can we just agree to play with Susan, and Amy and I will sit down and talk about the rest of this later?"

"I suppose," you hum, "since it sounds like you already have some kind of evil plan."

"It's not _evil_," she insists. "Seriously though, the girl has an oral fixation _thiiiiiis_ big," she continues, reaching down to grab your cock. "But not all dick-focused. She admitted some curiosity about girls, so I'm thinking have her slobber all over you while she teaches me to deep throat, maybe she can work me over a bit, and then you fuck her 'til she passes out. Or maybe those last two at the same time."

"Hmm.. A lovely plan, although they do say that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Maybe she'll turn the tables on you."

Crystal's response is stopped by her phone chiming, letting her know that Susan is downstairs. She fires off a quick response and gets up to throw on a loose pair of shorts and adjust your cock back into your underwear. "Can you magic your dick soft and keep it like that? That's apparently a fetish of hers, getting to see or feel a dick get hard or whatever."

You groan dramatically as Crystal scurries off to sign your friend in and turn your impressive mental magic skills to the decidedly less-impressive task of shriveling your bone. By the time the girls return you're flaccid if still impressive, posed and waiting on the bed.

Susan stops just a couple of steps into the room, her eyes raking over you before settling on your crotch. You flex a bit, enough that your cock shifts slightly and enjoy the sight of the short girl's nostrils flaring as if she's about to leap across the room to pounce. The sound of the deadbolt is incredibly loud in comparison and makes her jump and half-turn before Crystal starts sliding her jacket off.

"James! Look who came to see us!"

"Oh gee, what a surprise!"

Crystal rolls her eyes from behind the shorter girl as she notices that Susan seems to be just a _little_ focused on you. She brings her lips near the brunette's ear. "So I was thinking we'd start the night off with Susan taking her shirt off and climbing onto the bed and sucking your cock. Sound good?"

Susan is nodding unconsciously as Crystal nudges her towards the bed and begins peeling her top off. "Yes, please."

You pull your only scrap of clothes off and let your cock lay heavy and limp on your thigh as Crystal finishes unsnapping Susan's bra, slinging it aside and reaching around to cup the other girl's modest breasts. As they reach the side of the bed that gentle grip seems to be the only thing that's keeping the girl from trying to swallow your cock whole.

Crystal grabs a handful of hair and turns the brunette's attention back to her face. "No, you're going to kiss me and thank me for sharing my boyfriend with you, then you're going to kiss James and thank him for letting you suck his beautiful cock. Only _then_ do you get to suck dick you little slut."

The first touch of their lips seems a little awkward, but the next lasts quite a bit longer and brings a flash of tongue and a squeak as Crystal tweaks a nipple. The blonde latches on to Susan's neck and sucks as the brunette whispers, "Thank you Crystal," there's another squeak, presumably as the cape nibbles. "I, uh, mean thank you _mistress_?"

Crystal's smile is wide as she steals another deep kiss from Susan before releasing her. "Now get on the bed and kiss him."

Susan scrambles onto the mattress as Crystal pulls her jeans and panties off, pressing one hand against your chest as she leans in, eyes dark with arousal. You pull her to you and plunder her mouth, tasting a faint hint of Crystal's mint gum. Susan pulls back and whispers, "Thank you for letting me suck your cock," she bites her lip and her eyes flick over to Crystal who's hurriedly stripping and then down, "sir."

This time _you_ grab her hair and give her another mouth-bruising kiss. "Good girl. Now do what you're told."

Susan gives some perfunctory kisses to your chin and down your chest, but quickly zeroes in on your shaft, pressing her face against the base of your cock and inhaling before leaving little kisses and licks down the length.

Crystal floats next to you naked and cuddles up to you as you both watch your friend nuzzle at the head of your cock as if she wanted nothing more in the world. You turn and kiss your girlfriend and murmur into her ear, "So did you like bullying Susan?"

"_Yeah,_ that was really fun."

"It was pretty hot," you admit, kissing her again before she slides down to get level with Susan.

The bespectacled brunette has finally taken the head of your cock in her mouth and is almost nursing on it as you loosen your grip on your emotions, and your cock swiftly starts to grow thick. When she feels you swell she fastens her lips right behind the crown of your cock and swirls her tongue around as you stretch her jaw.

Once you're fully hard she pulls back and cradles your shaft between her hands, looks up at you with adoring eyes, and kisses your tip once more before starting to work your length into her hot mouth.

You push a connection through and browse her thoughts. Unsurprisingly they're very focused on sucking your dick, although Crystal also features heavily as the blonde reaches out and runs a hand down her back. She's enjoying herself though, and that's all you're concerned with.

Crystal is almost hugging your leg as she watches Susan take you to just to the entrance of her throat as she smears drool and precum down the length of your shaft. Brushing the girl's curly hair from her face they lock eyes, brown on blue. On the next stroke, Susan takes you into her throat with a soft _glhk._ Crystal gasps and reaches down to feel her friend's throat as you're pulled out and back in. "_Fuck…_"

You add a hand on Susan's head. "Shit, you're so good at this Susie." You run your fingers through her hair as the edges of her mouth curl up in a smile. Her eyes shutter as she continues her slow slide farther down your cock.

Popping off of you she breathes for a moment before swallowing you down again, this time sliding all the way until her nose rubs against your skin. Crystal is hovering right over her and kissing her shoulder as she watches.

Tears run from Susan's eyes as she stays impaled with your shaft down her throat, her tongue sneaking out to tickle your sack. You can feel the rhythmic pulse of her swallowing until you start to get worried. "Susie, breathe, baby."

Finally she jerks her head back, strands of saliva connecting you to her mouth as she sucks in heavy breaths.

Crystal is all over her as she recovers. "Fuck, Susie, you took all of that dick in your throat? You have _got_ to show me." She kisses the girl and draws her back down as they share space on either side of your cock.

Susan turns it in to a master class on cock worship as the two co-eds lay their lips on either side of your cockhead, their tongues mingling before guiding Crystal into taking your cock deeper than she's ever managed before. She can't replicate Susan's amazing performance, but your girlfriend manages to beat her previous record by a couple of inches, getting you into her tight little throat as well.

Teaching time quickly transitions back into worship as you run lightly-magicked hands through their hair. Both ladies trade time sucking deeply on your shaft as the other tongues your sack. Their teamwork has you quickly teetering on the edge of cumming as you murmur their names. Crystal pulls back long enough to mouth 'magic cum' before drawing one heavy ball into her mouth and sucking lightly, and you finally succumb to the sweetest torture ever.

Your first magically charged blast is let loose down Susan's throat and throws her over the edge into her own powerful, trembling orgasm. Crystal pulls her friend off before she chokes and both girls suckle at your tip as you cover their faces in your cum. Crystal starts to clean off Susan's face with her tongue, swiping more of your seed into her mouth and kissing the brunette deeply.

Tipping the girls over into laying on the bed without breaking their embrace, you pull their pussies close to each other and begin your own oral explorations. Susan has shaved herself bare and like Crystal is dripping wet. Turning your head to the side you swipe your tongue over both of their pretty little slits, starting with your girlfriend and ending with a squeal from Susan. With the help of a bit of magic touch from your fingers, you switch between licking both of their sweet pussies and hearing them moan in pleasure.

After they've cleaned each other off, you are occasionally joined in your oral endeavors by one or another of the girls' hands as they sneak down and do their first fumbling play with each other. You try to show your appreciation for their experimentation by kissing those shy, exploring fingers and lavishing attention on the other needy slit. Both girls cum from your attentions and the other's fingers before you lean over both of them and join their kiss.

Touching their minds gently, you see that both girls want to try moving things to the next level and go down on the other, but Susan has been gripped by sudden shyness and Crystal doesn't want to come on too strong.

You decide to take things into your own hands and find a different way, sneaking a finger into your girlfriend and casting the lubrication spell, then picking her up as you sit on the side of the bed with her reverse-cowgirl on top of you. "Susan, why don't you take a closer look and line me up?"

Hurrying off the bed, Susan kneels between your legs and kisses your cock a few times before taking you in her small hand and placing the swollen head of your dick at the entrance of Crystal's pussy.

"Baby, put your hand on her head and keep her close while I fuck you," you whisper in Crystal's ear as you pump magic to your shaft and lower your girlfriend down.

The brunette kneeling between your legs seems transfixed as you lower Crystal down until you're hilted inside her and pull her back up, your shaft now shiny with your mixed juices. "Susan," you call softly, "don't you want to taste us?"

She nods absently as she slowly moves forward, Crystal plucks the glasses from her face and puts her other hand in the girl's curly locks to tug until Susan's tongue makes contact. Both you and Susan moan before she trails her tongue up higher and Crystal's voice joins yours.

Crystal's weight on your arms cuts off as she hovers in place and draws the other girl's face in tighter to her core and you take the cue to slowly start thrusting from below. Crystal's moan as you move changes to shivery whimpers.

"Is she eating your pussy?"

"Oh shit, oh yes," the blonde moans again, "Oh _fuck, _right there, on my clit."

Nibbling your girlfriend's shoulder you pitch your voice lower, but make sure Susan will hear as well. "Is she as good at eating pussy as she is at sucking cock? Is she a natural at that too?"

That must inspire Susan to new heights, because Crystal's flight gets shaky. "Christ, maybe, she's getting even better…"

"Are you gonna cum all over her face?" You can tell Suan liked that as well, as you get a swipe of tongue along your shaft and sack before she goes back to driving Crystal out of her mind. "Susie, what are you going to do when I cum inside of Crystal? Are you gonna eat my cum out of Crystal's pussy?"

The blonde above you moans in loss for a moment when Susan pulls back. "Fuck _yes_," she moans before noisily sucking on your balls. "Cum in her, _breed_ her."

Crystal pulls the brunette back up to her clit, "Oh no, after he cums in me you're gonna get fucked too if you want to eat this pussy right."

There's a muffled moan that you take as your cue to pick up the pace. Your balls slap against Susan's chin and Crystal turns to you with wild abandon in her blue eyes. "Don't hold out us, I want you to cum too, James." She cups your cheek as she bites her lip. "Fill me full, love."

That murmured endearment breaks your resolve and you slam another handful of thrusts into your blonde lover before you unleash an incredible amount of magically-boosted cum into her clenching channel. Susan switches between nursing at your pulsing sack and licking up everything she can that's leaking out as Crystal cries out above you.

Your cape girlfriend's flight finally gives out and she collapses on you fully, turning and seeking out your mouth as you kiss fiercely. Susan apparently does _something_ that makes Crystal squeak and jump before she pulls back from the kiss and sits up, fisting curly locks in her hand. "No, I _said_ if you want my pussy you're getting fucked." She pulls the smaller girl up and wrestles her onto her back on the bed, kissing her tasting your combined fluids.

You sit between Susan's spread legs as your girlfriend pistons three fingers into the brunette's bare pussy before bringing those same fingers up and licking them right in front of Susan's honey-colored eyes. Dipping down to get a taste from the source, she swipes her tongue over her friend's slit, then places her fingers on either side of Susan's cunt. Grinning up at you, she spreads her friend's shiny pink lips. "James?"

"Yes dear?"

"Fuck her."

You decide to reinterpret your girlfriend's command and lube yourself up with a quick conjuration before pushing just the head of your cock in and letting it sit there for a bit. Susan groans as she adjusts to your girth while Crystal assists her by sucking on her clit.

After a minute, there's a soft cry from the other end of the bed. "M-_more._"

The grins you exchange are wolfish as you slowly claim the brunette's tight little channel. You have nothing but time as you both drive the petite girl out of her mind. Finally though you find yourself pressed up against her cervix—you didn't hit it, but you feel the blunt tip of your meat press against the opening of her womb and Susan levers herself upright to stare at the sheer amount of cock still outside her. She seems about to speak when you flex your core and her arms slide out from under her as she descends into moans. Pulling back about a quarter-inch you eye exactly how much she can take before starting to ease your way back out. "Crys?"

"Hmm?" she hums, eyes locked on your cock and tongue sampling the flavor

"Saddle up."

With an assist from her flight, she throws a leg over and grinds her messy cunt into Susan's face. You can tell the exact second that Susan starts eating her as Crystal's eyes almost cross. You hook a hand around her neck and pull her in to a kiss as you establish a fast pace that just barely kisses the entrance to her depths.

Threading her fingers in yours, your girlfriend murmurs against your lips, "Don't stay hard after this, I don't think Susie can take it." Slipping her tongue into your mouth the pulls back and pants, "Give her the magic cum again and I'll eat it out of her, then we'll be done."

You catch her lip in your teeth again. "Such a thoughtful mistress you are."

Throwing her head back and sending blonde locks flying Crystal laughs before moving close to you again. "You know you love it, _sir._" Moving your combined hands down so you can stroke the skin around Susan's clit with your thumbs, she pitches her voice a little louder. "I want you to _breed_ this little oral slut so I can taste you with every lick of her cunt."

Susan's hands come up to sink into Crystal's toned ass and pull her down deeper as her legs try to trap you inside her. She's not able to speak, but the muffled moans certainly sound like agreement.

Over the next few minutes you both do your best to drive Susan out of her mind, and between your cock and the two of you strumming her clit she shudders twice before you let Crystal know you're close. Flashing you a smile she acts for an audience of one once again. "James, fill this little fucktoy full of your cum so I can suck it out of her pussy!"

With two powerful thrusts you nestle the slit of your cock right against the entrance of Susan's womb and let go with a magically-charged blast so powerful that _Crystal_ cums just from the bleed-over. Your load fills her and spills out just from the first few ropes, and you continue to cum as you pull out and fill the cunt you shaped to fit only you with your essence. As you pop free, Crystal swoops in and coaxes the last few shots into her own greedy mouth before you move back and she settles in between her friend's spread thighs.

Switching places with her, you lay alongside the S Klub member and gently brush matted hair away from her face and kiss her, tasting Crystal's lovely flavor on Susan's lips. Susan herself seems out of it, her head rolling to the side as she pulls weakly at the blonde head at the apex of her legs.

You don't need to be a medi-wizard to see she's pretty wrung-out, so you content yourself with cuddling and kissing her sweetly as Crystal cleans her out and brings her to one more soft, shuddering climax.

Letting the two girls share some tender kisses, you roll off the bed and grab them both some water and conjure a couple of towels.

Shortly after you're laying on your back with Suan on your chest and Crystal cuddling tight against you and the three of you trade kisses. Running a hand down her back you ask, "Was it okay? We didn't go too hard with you, did we?"

Closing her eyes and rubbing her cheeks against you, Susan hums. "No, that was… the most amazing sex I have ever even considered possible in my life."

"So you're saying you're ready to go again?"

Susan makes a noise like a trapped animal while Crystal laughs and steals kisses from you both. "And now you know why I've considered locking him in a room with the rest of you so I don't have to explain to Amy why I need her to heal my aching hips."

Susan chuckles with you but falls asleep pretty soon thereafter, obviously tired. You exchange kisses with Crystal again before she lays her head on your shoulder and you all drift off to sleep.


	35. Feb 20, Dave edition

You'd like to say you slept the sleep of the well-fucked, but three people on a little dorm bed with two of them being tallish like you and Crystal does not give a lot of room, nor make for a super comfortable night. When this happens again—because seeing your girlfriend domme another girl was actually pretty fucking hot and you hope it happens again—you're using _your_ bed.

Susan stirs as you get dressed and you kneel down and kiss her forehead. "I jog with Taylor most mornings, sometimes Crystal joins and sometimes she doesn't. Sleep in and cuddle with her for me."

You get a dry look from the short brunette, who has your girlfriend half-draped over her like a lumpy blonde blanket. "I have a choice?"

With a final chuckle and a kiss to Crystal's hair you head out to one of your apparition points. With Dave's spy knowledge you take a moment to check sightlines and realize that this generator outbuilding is really one of the better spots you could have chosen. A weak muggle-repeller makes you feel better about making sure no one else wants to use it as a hideout as you pop back to your apartment. You sling Taylor's backpack over your shoulders and really have to pound the pavement to get caught up to the highschooler. You give her the backpack while you're both walking and she asks where Crystal is.

In the backpack is also:

[X][Taylor] A Gryffindor hoodie

You'd stuffed a Gryffindor hoodie in the backpack, over top of a cheap cellphone that Crystal had set up with her phone number in it and a prepaid card, along with a handwritten letter from her that you tactfully didn't read. Hopefully Taylor will actually use the phone to keep in contact with your girlfriend, having someone to talk to has done wonders for the younger girl's stress levels.

"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," you comment, before starting to run again, "but let me say those pleather pants were an excellent purchase."

Taylor chokes on something—the realization she's jogging with a memetic sex god, maybe?—and refuses to meet your eye for the rest of the run. You _may_ have also charmed your jogging shorts to be a little tighter than usual today, so it might be because you're dummy thicc and the clap of your ass cheeks keeps taking her attention.

In any case, once you get back to your apartment you shower and dress in your work clothes over at the lair before you scry good 'ol Dave.

…good 'ol Dave is knocked the fuck out at his condo on the southside. You thought you sensed that Coil was running his ass ragged. You also consider transfiguring your mouth a little wider so you can fit more teeth in to fit the evil smile you're sporting. He's completely defenseless against you.

Even though you know enough about Dave's security system from his own mind, you take the time to study his bedroom until you feel the certainty that you can apparate there.

So you do.

Dave is stunned and bodybound before you zip-tie his hands, then _incarcerous_ed for good measure. You conjure up a chair, stick his eyelid open, and start the in-depth brain dump.

Your first thought is _'Wow, Dave's an asshole'_, and the second is _'Wow, Dave and Coil are _both_ assholes.'_

Dave is one of two mercs that Coil employs that has knowledge of electronic surveillance and is the senior of the two. He's been sent out on a _lot_ of missions to tap a number of people's houses or workplaces.

Coil prefers non-constant-broadcasting, audio-only surveillance as a general rule, just like the taps that Dave installed in your apartment. They would record a large amount of audio—a couple of days' worth—and only transmit it when an authorization signal was first broadcast to them. This has served well even against the E88's own counter-surveillance teams in most cases, and along with insider info from the PRT, probably from Thomas Calvert himself, has allowed the bugging of some of the PRT and Protectorate's people as well.

Dave personally has planted bugs in Hookwolf's apartment/gym, as well as Fenja and Menja's penthouse, and Victor and Othala's condo. He's even assisted in the planting of bugs around the ABB areas, but they've learned not to try and tap the living areas of any of the current ABB capes, as they're all destructive in their own ways—Lung has caused over ten sets of bugs to melt when he flies into literal smoldering rages, Oni Lee bugs get blocked by ash, and Ame-onna's have to be waterproof—and a lot of the ones claimed to be waterproof aren't. Various tea shops, restaurants, or mistresses' apartments have to suffice for them instead.

New Wave was considered washed-up and useless for the most part until the last week or so, so no major watching of them were done. Plans have been made from time to time to surveil Amy, but the sheer amount of shit that would stir up if found kept Coil from ever actually going forward with it. At the moment, instead of active spying, a couple of long-range cameras record the backyards of both families' houses and are occasionally checked. Crystal's dorm is on the list of possible locations to bug, but both houses would be done first, and even with Warlock's appearance at the Pelham house it's not the first priority at the moment.

A number of the Merchants were also bugged, including Charles Shepard—Shaggy—as he owned a couple of businesses that Coil was angling on taking over at some point. Most of that blackmail is useless to the snakey supervillian now, and some of what Dave did yesterday was _removing_ bugs so that when houses were raided by the feds there would be no evidence that someone else was poking their noses in.

There are also bugs planted in PRT and Protectorate higher-up's houses and workplaces, mainly to verify information that Coil gets through other sources—probably from Coil's real day job, honestly. One thing Dave has done was to repair some items in Piggot's house for real, and use that as a chance to get the exact model of the dialysis machine she has. Coil was very appreciative of that particular job, and Dave earned a bonus. You're sure that doesn't bode well for the PRT director.

The Undersiders aren't exempt from being spied on, with their Redmond Welding hideout being bugged, and bugging has been done to some extent on Lisa's apartment, Bitch's dog shelters, Brian's apartment, and even Brian's mother and father's places, if only for the blackmail material that could be gathered. Regent lives in the hideout, so he's covered already.

There are also a number of assumed civilians being monitored, including a number of people on campus. A number of 'Winters' including Derek, all of which are suspected of E88 ties, and 'Allen Ivers', who you thought you'd never heard of, but the image you get is of _Thor._ You really hope Thor isn't actually Empire, he was such a bro.

Dave's addition to much of this are the small video cameras he sometimes includes, as he's a voyeur of the worst type—he has plenty of video of various capes in and out of their masks and nude videos of a number of women both cape and not while they're showering or getting ready for bed. And while it is indeed sexual for him, it's also just something he desires. He doesn't really see anyone other than himself as worthy of keeping secrets from him, so he doesn't mind tapping and viewing otherwise private lives.

…in all, he's a vile human being working for a similarly vile human being. Coil seems to be having a bad time recently though, mainly seen in Dave's eyes in the fact that he's been kept incredibly busy since the fall of the Merchants. There's been the clearing of already-planted bugs, yes, but also new spying to be done on the people Coil has chosen to try and sow chaos as the reborn Merchants—Mush, of course, but also Trainwreck and a new cape pulled in from somewhere in the deep south called 'Ink'.

In fact it's gotten worrisome enough that Dave refreshed the contents of his bug-out bag and has ensured that he keeps a full tank in his car so he can get as far away as possible. It's not that Dave thinks Coil's operation is going down any time soon, but when the previously smooth, seemingly-invincible master manipulator starts to get irritable and suffer setbacks, it's best to make sure your own ass is covered as well.

He has a number of computers, and his blackmail is backed up both locally on various drives, but also as encrypted disk images on a couple of cloud service providers.

Dave, though, for all that he is in something of a special place in Coil's employ, is not one of the major movers-and-shakers. He has met Coil in person perhaps once (and that may have been a body-double), generally getting his orders via a video call while inside the base. Using his memories, you could apparate in to various areas, but you're not going to be able to get to Coil directly, and since the snake-themed villain always seems to just appear out of thin air it's likely there are passageways that Dave isn't cleared to know about. In addition he doesn't have direct access to the armory, server room, or mission control room, although he knows where all three of those places are. Coil actually has security measures in place, and they even seem to be generally followed rather than ignored. That… sucks.

Dave, along with the rest of the hired muscle, have been told that the endgame of all of this is complete control of Brockton Bay. The hows and whys were never really touched on, but from the missions the other guys talk about, people have put together a theory that Coil or a Coil-backed patsy will be put forward as a Mayoral candidate on a 'clean up the city' platform in a year or two. So, pretty close to canon Coil's plans, just off on the position of power. Dave doesn't know everyone Coil employs, but there are at least four twenty-man teams of mercenaries, although not all of them are in-base at all times, and some are on missions that may not even be in Brockton Bay itself. As to how many additional mercs there are in positions like Dave's, he doesn't know, but it would certainly put the total over a hundred, possibly closer to one-fifty.

Dave is going to be back in the base later today to get verification that the bugs he planted—including yours—are working. When he reports they didn't work, he may or may not be told to plant them again—it's not the first time the Tinker-derived designs have screwed up for one reason or another.

There are a number of ways you could take this, including using this information to sneak in to Coil's base, discussing it or turning it over to New Wave or Templeton from the PRT, or even trying to turn Dave into a mole with mind control.

It's probably best that you make some plans. Dave had a long night and isn't expected in until early afternoon. It's currently only 9am.

Yes, there are more important things you could be pulling out of Dave's head, but seriously, what the fuck is going on with Thor?

…well, it appears that it's not so much that Thor is Empire, but he is Empire-adjacent, because of Erica, Derek's sunglasses-wearing cousin.

Who happens to be Othala.

It appears that Erica tried sounding Thor out about joining the E88 and was roundly rejected, but kept coming and visiting him. This was found out because _Victor_ found out and there were a series of arguments between the two about Erica's emotional affair and Joseph's (Victor's real name) actual affairs.

Yeah, it's easy to see that whatever happened to them in canon-Worm, they're not at the stage where there's actual love there. Apparently Thor's room has been bugged because Erica talks to him about various interpersonal issues within the cape ranks of the Empire (with all the references to the cape parts left unmentioned). Erica has also apparently chased away at least two possible girlfriends of Thor's. Thor has tried to convince Erica to leave the gang (he apparently thinks she's a drug dealer or some non-combat role) to no avail, and seems to carry something of a torch for the one-eyed woman even if he's obviously tried to move on from it. Dave loves listening in to the recordings, he considers it an incredible soap opera.

Coil only has had a couple Protectorate capes bugged—Velocity and Dauntless, and a number of the support staff that could be considered 'Protectorate' employees instead of general PRT staff. There were apparently order to bug Assault and Battery's house, but those were cancelled without warning and have never been repeated.

The non-cape spying is generally boring, only turning up the occasional extra name that some of the more HUMINT-focused mercs can try to lean on to get another mole. The only other non-cape related thing that Dave has gleaned is that apparently Piggot has managed to transfer all the fuckups and general troublemakers to be under the Protectorate umbrella rather than in the PRT, so when the capes themselves have issues they have few people in their part of the organization that are able to actually offer competent help.

Dauntless and his wife are on the edge of divorce—she doesn't want to be a cape-wife anymore, thinks that his job is interfering with him connecting with their daughter, and the love has just generally gone out of the relationship. That, again, has been turned over to HUMINT to see if there's anything on either side that can be manipulated—his wife having a sharp divorce lawyer could throw the up-and-coming cape for a loop and impact his performance in operations.

Velocity is being monitored because he's a total man-whore. His learning of Chinese has led him to a number of places in the local Chinatown, including massage parlors. There's been an increasing number of 'one night stands' that come back to his place and leave with their 'taxi fare' paid for. Dave doesn't know if the ABB has twigged on him yet, but if not and he continues at this pace it's only a matter of time.

Tattletale is not actively monitored 24/7, and bugging spaces that she's going to use is done very carefully. When putting recording devices in her apartment it was done when the apartment manager had scheduled actual maintenance (the fact that maintenance was done may have been influenced by bribery, but the work needed to be done in the first place), and the HVAC upgrades were done legitimately by licensed technicians. That Dave happened to be appointed as the supervisor by the apartment manager was completely coincidental, of course. There are a number of monitoring devices hidden in ductwork and behind drywall. The Thinker is smart or paranoid enough not to disclose anything particularly incriminating over the phone, but any time that audio is recorded by the bugs it goes directly to Coil himself.

Dave managed to place one camera in Lisa's bedroom that he has pulled video from a handful of times. Nothing titillating, but it's not surprising from someone as fucked up as he.

Supposedly—it's not his area—there are additional presence trackers that are used for her to verify a general location for her so any attempts to leave the city would fail.

There is a small sub-squad that has at least one person available to track down the Thinker if she goes rogue and tries to escape. Supposedly they have access to some of the very limited amounts of containment foam and non-lethal weapons, but he's seen them bringing the bagged girl in with live weapons more than once.

All of the mercs have been informed that Tattletale is a Thinker and nothing she says should be trusted unless verified by Coil first.

Even with all of this, she is kept as segregated as possible from the majority of people that work in the base, and frequently isn't even brought to the main base, instead meeting Coil in one of the satellite bases that are generally used to store vehicles.

Speaking of bases, there are multiple bases that Coil's organization uses, but the rest are either shared spaces that are largely used for vehicle storage, or similar small spaces that are used in drug distribution or corporate espionage. The 'main base' that was originally supposed to be an Endbringer shelter or something similar has been extensively modified. Access is controlled by badges and camera or in-person security, and even within the base itself areas are further controlled by the access level of one's badge, as well as additional biometric identification for some locations like the armory.

The base has multiple entrances, some used for vehicle arrival and departure, and some walk-in entrances. Dave assumes there's entire sections he knows nothing about in the base—he already knows he doesn't have access to any of the power generation or life support sections, and there are some oddly-shaped rooms that only make sense if you assume there are other passageways.

All entrances open into a wider room with a security checkpoint where one needs their badge to get in. Depending on the entrance, there may also be actual guards, or perhaps just cameras with a turret or two. Supposedly those are non-lethal sandbag rounds, but no one who knows has said for sure.

The vehicle entrance has parking for the different cars, vans, and military vehicles that are used—regular cars for trailing people, white work-vans with a multitude of vinyl decals to blend in, and PRT-like vans if things ever get heavy.

Inside the base itself there are a number of barracks rooms, some of which people live in full-time, and some of which are used only when getting ready for some operation or for crashing if it's been a long day. Food and drinks are available in a number of areas even if there isn't an actual cafeteria.

Typically there are roughly 50 people in the base, although many of them would be resting, preparing for some other mission, or doing administrative tasks. All employees have some familiarity with guns and should have at least basic training on how to handle themselves in an emergency.

Dave is aware that Coil's group deals in the drug trade—actually the Merchants were their main competitor—as well as providing muscle for capes elsewhere.

Security has been on a medium to high alert since the Merchants were taken down. Everyone was briefed on Warlock's existence, and you have been mentioned as a Mover, minion Master, and Shaker. Current engagement rules are to put you down hard and fast if anything resembling hostility is found, and to disable, drug, strip, and keep unconscious if you can be ambushed. You get the feeling that Coil doesn't like you very much.

Browsing through the rest of his memories of the base itself tells you that there's enough surveillance and security to make moving around irritating—you're invisible to the cameras he's aware of (video and IR), but you'd be locked out of any areas that might lead to Coil himself.

You could get in via following Dave or apparating into a corridor and try to mind-control someone with higher credentials, or you could try getting in and just busting down doors or transfiguring new doors. There's also the option of tracking down Thomas Calvert and dealing with him, either alone or after trying to recruit Tattletale to your side. All of this could be done with or without the support of New Wave, Quin Calle, or the PRT. Or you could just sit back and monitor the situation, perhaps prodding Dave to realize that bugging your apartment didn't work, and having him show back up to create evidence of a break in for you to use.


	36. Sun, Feb 20, Plan time

…fuckin' Dave, fuckin' Coil. You verify there's no recording devices in Dave's bedroom and pop around the city a couple of times before going back to your lair. Looks like it's time to get rid of Snakey, the asshole just can't leave well enough alone.

You sketch out some basic plans in your mind, one of which would involve drugging the shit out of everyone in the base. You'll need to make a bulk brew of Alihotsy Draught, and that's going to take almost all of your remaining Alihotsy. You shoot Amy a text wanting to talk magical plants and she tells you she'll be there in a half to three-quarters of an hour, so you take the time to try and scry for Coil.

Instead of the ten-ish minutes that scrying normally takes, you're left with a pretty shitty connection after twenty that shows Snake-Face in his office of his lair. Obviously with his full-body costume on you can't see his face but the villain's entire posture is slumped as if he's incredibly tired.

You finally get sound working but hear nothing except keystrokes for a bit before someone walks in. The man that interrupts is wearing a sweater and places down a couple of pills in a container before holding a hand out. "Let me check your vitals first, sir."

Coil's bodysock apparently doesn't interfere as the guy checks his blood pressure and pulse. "I would suggest against any more than this, sir."

Coil looks at the clock on the computer and obviously does some mental math. "Understood, Mister Pitter," the villain says, sounding a bit hoarse. Waiting until the other man leaves the room, he pokes at a small fold in the cloth and the head portion unzips separately letting Thomas Calvert's tired face be seen. The bags under his eyes are purple and swollen-looking as he takes the pills and washes them down with water before switching to a mug of coffee from a machine in his office that he chugs, refills, and slams down again.

Gathering himself, he takes a couple of breaths before standing in front of the phone. The image in the scrying mirror shakes like someone just dropped the bass for a moment, and when it clears he's picked up the phone and has hit a speed-dial selection. You make a note of the number that pops up before the other side is answered. "Tattletale."

The emotions passing over Tom's face is pretty amusing, honestly. "The plans are still on for the moment. I have other things to take care of—if you encounter information that would impact these operations, then you need to contact me immediately." He hangs up with no farewell.

Sitting back down he pulls up another file on his computer and starts to dial someone else, but this time it just ends up being about construction equipment.

You cut the connection and note down Tattletale's cell number before heading out of the room to meet Amy, who shows up shortly after with a little red wagon loaded with a bag of topsoil and some plant pots. She doesn't seem particularly happy when you hit her with a charm to change her into a pair of bib overalls and a straw hat even if you appreciate the lack of a shirt you gave her. The sideboob you get does seem incredibly distracting, you have to admit. You let her stomp up and huff at you and thoroughly mollify her by dipping her and stealing all that huff away with a kiss.

Before you get started on brewing and discussing Herbology, you put in a call to the hospital and let them know you'll be healing alongside Panacea this afternoon, and after that's done break out your 'healing uniform' that you've never worn. The enchanted robes with the constantly-shifting foliage do seem to be a hit, but Amy does happen to have one request.

"You can't wear these out in public with me, James."

"But why not?"

Amy tosses the robe over her shoulders and flips the hood over her head. "I guess Crystal didn't get around to discussing it with you, but we've mostly decided—if you're okay with it, of course—that _she's_ dating James, and _I'm_ 'dating' Warlock."

You shoot air-quotes right back at her. "No, she didn't. And 'dating'?"

"Well, yeah. You can't exactly play the cool older boyfriend and pick me up from school, but we can be seen in public occasionally," she looks down and nudges the floor with a shoe. "Only if you want to, of course."

[X][Amy] Agree to 'date' Amy as Warlock

You sigh and snatch Amy up and ignore her squeak. "I do, but let's keep in mind all the ways this could go wrong. What's going to happen if Crystal changes her mind? What's going to happen when you decide we're better off as friends?"

The dark-haired girl wraps her arms around your neck and looks in your eyes. She's worried and nervous, but there's a deep undercurrent of affection there. "We act like adults and sort things out?"

"Adults do stupid things too, but I get what you're driving at." You lean forward and touch her nose with yours. "We will have to get together regularly and talk about things, and that means being honest about feelings no matter how much they might hurt."

You're not surprised by the spike of anxiety she feels, but Amy closes her eyes and pulls herself against you as she wrestles with it. "Okay. We can share, we can talk, and it'll be okay."

Putting her down you kiss her again and pull the hood of your robes that she's still wearing over her face. "Good. Now, about these robes…"

"Because 'Warlock' looks edgy and dark, and these druid hippy robes ain't it."

You shrug. "Alright, fair, I suppose. These robes are for interacting with people I'm healing and maybe kids anyhow."

You and Farmer Dallon start doing some experiments while you get started on brewing the Alihotsy draught. With a bit of testing with seeds you have plenty of it becomes obvious that part of the planting process involves magic. You have a metric fuckton of dittany seed and leaf, and you systematically discover that when Amy clones things they don't have the inherent magic that makes them useful as potions ingredients. However if either you or Amy go through the process of planting them and she just accelerates their growth they end up being viable, if not quite as potent as conventionally-grown plants. You should probably think about clearing some space for a greenhouse.

You also give Amy a test potion that doesn't need a finishing spell and she is indeed able to whip up a decent hair-raising potion with minimal assistance from you.

On one of her passes through the main room she does a double-take and almost trips over her own feet at what you have on the table.

"James, why is there a snake-thing and a…" she turns red, "a buttplug out here?"

"Because I found them when I was looking through my trunk the other day." You shrug, "The snake is the major catch, it acts like the _incarcerous_ spell I was telling you about. In fact, once I checked it over, I was considering giving it to you as a way for you to disable an attacker if someone is stupid enough to try and hurt you."

Amy has to get up on her tiptoes to actually give you a kiss, but she does, throwing her arms around your neck and threatening to drag her overalls down and give you a show.

[X][Snake] Test the snake and give it to Amy now

You smile into her lips and continue talking, pitching your voice like a showman. "The buttplug is a very nice all-in-one expanding and contracting, self-cleaning, butt preparing vibrating magical sex toy."

Amy had started squirming as you talked, but while it _seemed_ like she was trying to escape she mostly rubbed her thighs together. "James!"

"Let's try it out," you start, slipping out of her grasp. You wait a beat before continuing, "…I'm talking about the snake, of course."

"Eh-heh," comes the fakest laugh you've ever heard, "right."

The directions you found with the snake are pretty clear, so you do the quick binding ritual and have the snake wrap around your arm for carrying. A few test runs with the snake wrapping the teenager's entire body (and almost always snaking between her breasts) works a treat, but with that experience under your hat you manage to figure out how to target limbs instead.

That leads to you standing in front of your new cape girlfriend as she blinks up at you with her arms bound behind her. You don't even try to stop the evil smile from showing on your face and in turn she swallows thickly, causing the ankh on her choker to dance.

"An excellent position for you to be in, my dear."

You're monitoring her thoughts and this is treading fairly close to her limit for the day, what with the dating thing and all. Still, there's a submissive fetish switch that's being hammered in the back of her mind. Reaching out you trail a hand up her side and cup her face for a moment before you gently tug her closer to kiss her. Whispering the release phrase against her lips, her arms immediately grab yours and pull them around her, and you trade nibbles and pecks as she processes her feelings for the lightest of bondage.

Soon enough you're guiding Amy through the ritual and she's experimenting with different ways to incorporate an enchanted snake-thing into her wardrobe. It works equally well on both her forearm and bicep, but clashes a bit with her choker if she tries to use it as a necklace. Your suggestion to hide the choker was soundly ignored, but a bit more experimenting shows that it works as both a belt and a belly chain as well.

More important than that, you make sure she's capable of actually _using_ the snake. Being wrapped up by it is uncomfortable—tight, but not super restricting, although it gets much tighter and a lot more uncomfortable as you struggle. With a little practice she even manages to get your legs as you sprint around and then stands over top of you with her hands on her hips and a smile on her lips.

"An excellent position for you to be in, my-"

Your smokejump takes you behind her and leaves the snake behind as you wrap your arms around hers. "No," you murmur into her ear, "that's not how this works, is it?"

She yelps as you nip at the side of her neck. "No!"

You murmur, "Good girl," and feel her shiver in your arms and wiggle back against you.

You can't find it in yourself to be surprised when the buttplug and directions have mysteriously disappeared after Amy leaves.

Soon enough, however, it's time to go heal. You bring your healing robes but don't wear them in deference to Amy. Apparating to a nearby roof, you fire off a smoke spell and apparate the two of you into the middle of it as you stroll out nonchalantly.

Once you're inside you verify with the admin that you're cleared for healing and it seems that Quinn has done his job, as everything is good to go. Amy sets you up the same way you were the other week—back-to-back—but she brushes up against you a lot more than she had previously.

Since there isn't a bunch of gang violence this time, the two of you aren't as swamped, and you continue chatting as you work. When you mention (quietly) that you've put feelers out to Quinn Calle about doing 'cosmetic alterations'. It takes a bit, but Amy finally asks if you'd be willing to do some work on her.

"My dear Panacea, while I'm perfectly willing to give you the same kind of tune-ups that I believe you've given your family, please know that you are _already_ a beautiful woman, so please don't feel that you need to change yourself at all."

Seeing the flush rush across her face is adorable, as is the little squeak as you brush your fingers against her cheek. Her lips pout as if she expects you to kiss her before she looks back at your mask. "I'll keep it in mind."

Other than a few serious cancer diagnoses that have to be sent over to Amy to heal, you both have a fairly unremarkable healing session of about three hours. You're considering what to do for the rest of the afternoon, as Amy apparently has homework to do, when her stomach rumbles a bit, so you instead take the healer out for lunch.

Said healer side-eyes you the entire way, especially the part of your mask where you won't be able to eat as you're both seated at a nearby Indian joint.

This being Brockton Bay, the waitress gives the two of you a long, steady look before shrugging and taking your orders. Finally, Amy can't hold it in any longer and asks how exactly you expect to eat your lamb korma.

Leaning forward a bit you smile under the mask and pitch your voice down. "I'm going to take off the mask and play a prank."

Amy narrows her eyes at you. "Is this prank on _me?"_

"Nope, it's on a completely unsuspecting Clockblocker, mainly to stir up shit."

You can tell she deals with Dennis on a regular basis, because her eyes gleam with amusement. "An excellent choice of victim."

The two of you chat about the healing you did and similar topics until your food arrives, at which point you put a hand to your mask and remove it.

…revealing a half-mask exactly like it underneath and showing dark skin with grey clocks that slide around. Amy times a perfect gasp right as all conversation stops. "Oh, my, _god_. What happened to you?"

You hold a hand up in a fist, speaking dramatically. "I have come back in time to confront my father, Clockblocker. He will pay for leaving my mother like he did!"

"But-but who is your mother, then?"

Gazing into the distance, you can see people edging closer. "Skidmark."

Flicking your eyes over to Amy, she is struggling to keep a straight face. You're pretty sure she's bitten the inside of her cheek to keep from breaking down into laughter. "But Skidmark is male—"

"They team up to fight a villain named 'Degender' and… well, it is not my story to tell, but their romance was the stuff of legend. Nevertheless, I will have words with that monster wearing my father's costume."

Amy puts a hand on yours. "I'm sure you will. Let's not ruin our meal with such regrets, though. We will speak more of this later, in private."

"Of course, my dear Panacea." You surreptitiously heal her mouth before you both start eating. You also graciously ignore her pulling her napkin up to hide her laughter for a minute or two before she gets herself under control.

Instead of using a privacy spell and being obvious, Amy mentions schoolwork and you speak of your meetings with your lawyer. After you finish and pay, you go to peel the half-mask off, revealing another full mask underneath. Your tablemate picks up the half-mask and fits it to her own face and you both stride from the restaurant with Amy holding the original mask in her hand.

After you clear about a half-block, she tosses the mask in front of you and it lands with a clatter, spewing dark smoke from the eye and mouth holes.

"Ninja…" she says

Neither of you break stride, "…vanish."

You appear back in your lair and Amy immediately collapses in laughter, almost howling in your ear as you pick her up and throw her over your shoulder. You end up with her in your lap after you sit down as she tries to get her breathing back under control. "I assume you're going to get Vicky to find out how Clockblocker reacts?"

Wiping tears of mirth from her eyes, Amy nods and starts texting someone. "Oh yeah. I doubt she'll be able to get video, but I'll settle for her describing it. I'm going to let her know to ask him when she sees him next."

Amy can't stay any longer, so she heads back to the Pelham house and you scry Coil again. This time you actually scry for 'Thomas Calvert', and get the same snake-suited cape, this time in the back of a car. Coil gets out of the suit and changes into a pair of slacks and a polo shirt before stashing the suit in a hidden compartment. When the car pulls up and into a garage there's a moment where everything goes fuzzy again before Thomas gets out and heads into what you assume is his house. He reheats some kind of leftovers and shovels it into his mouth with military efficiency before slowly ascending a set of stairs, showering, and collapsing onto the bed. It's only seven in the evening and the would-be king of Brockton Bay is completely passed the fuck out.

You stop the surveillance for about a half-hour before checking back. Coil has shifted position but his breathing is even, with a slight snore. You pivot your point of view around to check for any places that cameras or other monitoring equipment could be before carefully casting everything you can think of to render yourself untraceable. Making an emergency portkey with a short trigger phrase, you apparate silently into Thomas Calvert's bedroom.

It's really unfortunate that there is nothing here that connects him to being Coil, as having him at asleep and at your mercy would make things pleasantly simple. You hit Coil with a stunner, and follow up with a body-bind before checking the man over with a diagnostic.

…something, perhaps you, has made him make some dumb fucking decisions with his health. The pills you had seen were amphetamines, and he's crashed. You don't know if his day job is a regular one, but you doubt he's going to be showing up anytime soon tomorrow.

Sticking to your plan, you sedate the cape and make an incision down to bone, carving out a chunk of the iliac crest and enchanting it with a portkey set as far out as you have been able to see over the horizon, and a couple of thousand feet in the air. You also use a protean charm to link to a coin you transfigured with Coil's snake emblem on it so you don't have to be in yelling distance of Coil's pelvis to get rid of him.

After fusing the bone back together and sealing him back up you peel an eye back and brain dump him. You'll need some time to dig through everything and make sure he isn't hiding a massive Doom-Cannon in his base rigged to go off or anything.

Checking everything over to ensure you've left no trace, you pop around before hitting up your lair and changing, then heading back to your apartment.

Crystal's texted you, and you respond back before popping over to her dorm and getting pounced on. You take her back to the apartment and the two of you make a late-ish dinner and catch up on things—she hung out with the Klub, and Karen was finally cleared to be released.

[X][Discussion] Explain about the Dave/Coil connection

You're in the middle of cutting your chicken when you decide to talk about the Coil thing a bit. "So, that guy that I mentioned that tried to bug the place?"

Crystal raises her eyebrows at you as she chews and gives you a 'go on' gesture.

"So I had used the time-turner and tracked him after he got done. He dropped the van he was using off at a garage and headed to a condo down on the southside. Now, I made the decision based on the whole 'capes don't try to find out the real names of other capes' thing, and figured someone was being fucky."

By this point Crystal's finished chewing and is already rubbing one temple. "You're right that it shouldn't be happening, but I can already tell something's going to be screwed up. Let me have it."

You put your utensils down do a little hand shrug. "So the dude wasn't named 'Ralph' like his coveralls said. His name is Dave, and he works for Coil." You stop for a beat before you continue, "And apparently he's like the main spy microphone installer, and a bit of a pervert. So anyhow, he had recordings of all of the gangs' capes, some PRT and Protectorate people, some civilians I don't know offhand, the Undersiders—who apparently were put together by Coil in the first place—even your parents' backyard."

Your blonde girlfriend is furious, "What in the hell is that fucker _thinking_? If anyone knew he was doing that they'd start a straight-up war."

"I'm assuming he's a Thinker, so he probably thinks he's better than all us peons," you offer mildly.

Narrowing her eyes, Crystal kicks back in the chair a bit. "You have a plan."

"I have a plan. The same plan that worked for the Merchants." You spread your hands and smile, "See, it appears that Coil has gone full Bond villain and has an underground lair. With an HVAC system. That I looked up the plans to, and know where to dump the potion into."

"Uh-huh, and how many jokers does Coil have?"

That drops the smile from your face. "Well, there's the problem. From the poking around I did this morning, he has close to two hundred people all-told," you check to make sure the choking noise from her is just air before you continue, "and I have no idea how many are actually in the base at one time. Supposedly they're mercenaries, so I'm assuming that the ones not caught in the base would just bug out and go elsewhere." You sigh and scratch the side of your head, "I was planning on calling Templeton and getting some advice on timing and such—of course if she's a mole then the whole thing is screwed, but…" you throw your hands up in a what-can-you-do gesture.

"If you need help from me, or Amy, or really any of the rest of New Wave, you know we'll help. Keep me in the loop, okay?"

You bring up the Amy thing as well, and Crystal looks a little embarrassed. "Okay, this is going to sound weird, especially since I claimed like a month ago that I wasn't doing an open relationship. I still don't want like an _open-open_ relationship." She floats over the table and settles in your lap and looks you right in the eyes. "We're a couple, and stuff like having Susan as an occasional third is cool, but like anything like that we'll decide _together, _right?"

You lace your fingers with hers. "I agree."

"But the Amy thing… James, I've never seen her react like this to _anyone_ before. She totally has a thing for you—both as you and Warlock. She doesn't know I know, but she's written _fanfic_ about you. She like, wants your babies."

"Uh…"

Crystal snorts, "_Metaphorical_ babies. And I don't have it in me to deny her, but I'm not willing to give you up either."

You kiss your girlfriend and lean your forehead on hers. "And jealousy isn't an issue?" You push into her mind a bit and probe as she answers.

"I might be a bit jealous—not gonna lie—but as long as I know that you and me are still strong, there's no problem."

More than that, Crystal feels that bit of jealousy _and_ a frisson of arousal. Well, a _lot_ of arousal. The term _cuckcake_ also floats through her mind. You find it a weird thing for her to enjoy, but as long as you monitor the situation…

"I can see things going badly if this gets mismanaged—I'm not going to say no, but I am going to tell you that if you ever stop feeling secure about things, please talk to me. As long as we can discuss things like actual adults we'll find something we can do to fix it."

"Agreed," she says, and seals it with a bunch of kisses.

Later in the evening you find both of you sitting clothed on the bed as you talk Crystal through the first steps of internal mind magics. You were lucky enough to be able to skip these steps when you gained your skill, but you have the knowledge to teach as your squib girlfriend learns the basics of clearing her mind both mentally and magically.

For someone who has never touched magic before you came into her life she does wonderfully—she's not quite able to still her mind and concentrate on the flow of magic within her without your assistance, but you had assumed she wouldn't even be able to get as far as she had.

Coming back up out of the trance state Crystal blinks those beautiful blue eyes at you and reaches up from where her head is cradled in your lap to pull you down into an inverted kiss. Some wiggling on her part later and a pair of panties is deposited on your head.

You pull back and see her cocky smirk, which quickly goes crosseyed when you reach out and touch with your magic hand.

Grabbing your other hand, she bites your thumb and pants against your wrist. "James, baby, I think it's time for bed."


	37. Week 6, Part I

You fire off an email to your lawyer early Monday morning about the blackmail material you found—you don't actually phrase it so blatantly of course, but since you had brought it up previously he should know what you're talking about.

After your morning classes, you pop back to your lair and grab the finished mandrake potion. You levitate the elf into the main room, lay it on a cot, and apply some of the draught topically. As the elf's face softens you pour the rest down their throat and sit back as their stiff posture relaxes. The diagnostic spell that had been reading nothing suddenly shows readings of terror and fear before tapering off to something resembling normal for a house-elf. It takes close to ten minutes before the figure stirs, however, and that's only a weak shifting to look over at you.

You move over and kneel beside the cot. "Hello, can you tell me your name?"

"Ic namede Ælfgifu, me friáa."

"Oh, how lovely," you sigh and hit the elf with a translation spell. "Let's try this again. Did you say your name was Aelfgifu?"

"Many apologies master wizard, I be indeed Ælfgifu."

Well, either the translation spell smooths out the very odd house-elf voice cadence, or elves in foreign languages speak much more formally. It's better on your ears, at least. "My name is James Peverell. Do you remember what happened before you were petrified?"

The elf brings its hand up and curls it around, "Ælfgifu was asked by Master Slytherins to help test the security of his chambers. Ælfgifu does not know why Master Slytherins moved his chambers under the school, though, it be cold and wet down there."

"And do you remember what year it was?" you ask with a sinking feeling.

"No, Master Peverell, but the king be Æthelred, if that helps?"

You groan. No, no it doesn't help at all. "Aelfgifu, I have some very bad news…"

Explaining to a house-elf that they've apparently been petrified for over a thousand years and that you're the only wizard around is heart-wrenching. You end up bundling Aelfgifu's slight form in your arms as she weeps for the loss of everything and everyone she knew. You send Crystal a text and she arrives and sits down next to you and places a hand on the elf's back as she finally starts to get herself together.

"You be right, master Peverell, Ælfgifu don't senses any other elfs or anything around. Your trunk has been to Hoggywarts, I feel the magics on it, but it an older Hoggywarts than I knew." She turns to Crystal, then back to you and blinks, "Oh, Ælfgifu is sorry, Lord Peverell, I not see your lady there." She hops onto the floor and gives a curtsy to a confused Crystal. "Lady Peverell, I be Ælfgifu."

Your girlfriend flicks her eyes over to you, then back down to the tiny elf. "Um, hello. I'm not Lady Peverell, though. We're just dating."

The elf looks at Crystal, then back at you and cocks her head, sending her ears wiggling. "If yous say so, Lady Crystal."

"Aelfgifu, if you'd like you can search for other wizards and witches, but I would appreciate it if you let me know what you found first."

"Oh no, Lord Peverell, I will bond with the Peverell family. I waste away otherwise."

"I'm pretty sure I'm not a lord either."

"You be the only wizard here, you said. Then you be _all_ the lords."

"….I'm also pretty sure that's not how it works."

The elf hops onto the table and sticks her hands on her hips. "How you think people be kings? You say you king, beat up anyone who argue. So you say you lord, zap any wizard that argue."

That's some fucked up logic, but it _is_ logic. "You know what? Sure, I'm Lord Peverell, that's fine. How does this bonding work then?"

You're guided through laying your hand on her head and formally inviting her to serve the Peverell family. With that done you now have a bonded servant who is side-eyeing your girlfriend and referring to her as 'Lady Pev-Lady _Crystal_'. You explain your apartment and the lair, and take her to each location, and have to sit and explain cameras and surveillance to her in a way that she understands—in this case, like portraits that can remember things. Your first orders to her are to pop around invisible and get used to the world she finds herself in as you head back to your lair and your girlfriend.

Crystal wraps her arms around you and holds you tight as you explain more about what little you know of house-elves, and additional questions about the Wizarding World.

"So you seriously could be a 'Lord Peverell'?"

You chuckle. "I guess it's possible, but I'd doubt it. Peverell's a Norman French name and the only real ancestor I know of was a knight, but that doesn't exactly entitle me to be Lord anything. If it helps Aelfgifu, though, then I don't mind."

"So why am I Lady Peverell?" Crystal asks. "Not that… well, I mean… you, uh," she trails off, blushing.

Kissing her forehead you cut her mumbling off. "I'm assuming it's some kind of difference between 10th century wizarding life and now. Women were much more limited in what they could do, so if you're here and we're 'dating', she probably thinks that's either some kind of betrothal or alliance between our families or something."

Looking up at you, Crystal's eyes darken a shade as she uses her flight to tug you in the direction of the bed. "Perhaps my lord would like to strengthen his alliance with the Pelham family?"

"An excellent idea, my lady."

After Arcadia lets out in the afternoon, Amy shows up at the lair and is introduced to Aelfgifu. Being called 'Mistress Peverell' turns her bright red, but her blushing stops when she actually touches the elf and gets lost in examining the makeup of a highly-magical being other than yourself. Aelfgifu is pretty decent about it, all things considered.

With introductions completed, you and Amy get started on planning a greenhouse. You've decided to take over the rest of the block and make everything unplottable, but rather than level it all and put in the greenhouse on ground level you're going to gut a couple of the buildings and transfigure the sides to glass, as well as grow larger items like trees on the roof.

After learning what you're planning, your elf wants to assist as well, and manages to transport enough dirt from somewhere to layer it thickly on a newly-strengthened roof as Amy plants some larger bushes and trees and gets them rooted.

You take a break after reinforcing the building and pull the short girl into a hug. "Have you ever considered becoming a plant-themed cape with your talents?"

Amy looks up at you with a confused smile and smudges of dirt on her face. " How would I manage that?"

You paint her a mental picture of an vine-whip-wielding, sleep-spore-spraying version of Poison Ivy and smirk internally as she wanders off to experiment with some plants. Hopefully that experimentation will calm her shard down some so that she doesn't need constant cleansing to feel better.

Off-and-on during the day you check on Coil, but he spends most of his day at the PRT doing random bullshit—typing things on a computer, mostly—while doing his best to hide his shakes and chugging water like he's in the middle of the desert. Lisa looks to be doing research about one of the drug storage locations the Undersiders are supposed to hit on Wednesday evening. It's one of the ones Diego knew about, checking over the notes she has strewn around and pulling some stuff from Coil's memories tells you that he's using this as a chance to get yet more practice with breaking and entering for the Undersiders and possibly stir up some heat with the Empire, who are taking over the area. The business that the drugs are stashed in is near the Palanquin, so drawing Faultline's hangers-on into the mix would be a bonus. The current plan seems to be for them to retreat towards where the ABB is taking over former Merchant territory and try and get the two or three gangs to scrap a bit.

[X][Undersiders] Monitor them and step in if things go badly

You get a text back from Quinn and he tells you stop by at any time tomorrow, so you decide to try and knock another item off your list and set up a lunch appointment with Templeton. She's apparently off during the day, and agrees to get something at Cafe Sofrito.

Tuesday morning after you both run with Taylor, Aelfgifu takes it upon herself to pop Crystal back over to her dorm room rather than making 'her lady' fly. You get a guilty text later about how she didn't stop the elf from cleaning her dorm room, which had gone back to being dirty, but when you mention to your elf that she doesn't have to clean if she doesn't want to you get a pitying look and drop that line of conversation.

After your morning class you drop in to talk to Calle and find that he's got a fair amount of stuff to talk to you about as well.

"So the DA wants to do the deposition Thursday morning. I'm going over the questions now, and I don't have any major objections with what's been checked over so far. There were a couple of items that questioned your use of drugs, but when I pointed out that Panacea was there, _and_ you also know how to heal they scrubbed those questions entirely." He runs you through the questions quickly and while some phrasings of your answers are changed, it's obvious the DA is throwing softballs to keep you from deciding not to testify at all.

[X][Deposition] Use the time-turner to do the deposition

"Alright, I can do Thursday morning. Do I need to wear a suit over my armor?" With a wave you're wearing a tuxedo.

You get a longsuffering look from Quinn. "Please don't."

Leaning back, you do your best to project a smirk with your voice. "Fair enough. Rather than bother with travel, I'll meet you here and teleport us there."

"To somewhere outside, I hope. I doubt they'd appreciate us appearing past security."

You wave his concern away. "Of course man. Being shot would irritate me, not to mention putting holes in my coat."

After that you drop the information about blackmail on him and hand over a copy of Sia's drive. Quinn flips through some documents before noting that 'Tammy Roche' hasn't been processed yet, but one of the attorneys has made a motion for minimal bail—and that name happens to be the pissbaby she has information on. Quinn makes a call to the head federal District Attorney and comments that the two of them should get a late lunch.

"Went to the same law school, he was a year ahead of me." Calle comments after he hangs up, "Guy's kind of an asshole, but he's not _stupid._ I'll check this stuff out and let him know what's up with his people and they can get assigned to other things or find a different job. Either way it's not our problem after this."

The work on your cosmetic surg—_alteration_ sideline is almost done as well. You're given copies of the agreements that people will be required to sign, and you're told that there is one bite already—a Hollywood starlet who survived breast cancer, but has had a double mastectomy. She had been considering breast implants, but landed a role in a movie and wouldn't have the time to recover. If you're okay with it, you could meet her in Brockton Bay, Boston, or New York some time next week. This would give you an A-list starlet in your pocket who would be talking you up, although she's apparently known as a raging bitch, and will probably 'ask' for more that just the boobjob. You wouldn't be making money on this one, but hopefully a good result would net you a lot more in new clients.

[X][Cosmetic] Agree, do it in Brockton Bay

"I have no problem with growing her a pair of breasts, but I'm completely serious about being extremely limited on how much flesh I can add—shifting it around is easier and better for her in the long run. Be _very firm_ that she should just pig the fuck out for the next week. She can use the weight gain to fuel baby rumors or shill some lifestyle bullshit, but if she's as rail-thin as she is in this picture," you poke at the magazine cover Calle had given you, "she's not getting a pair of Ds like she's asking for unless I make her ass as flat as a board."

Quinn fiddles with his pen and lets out a soft laugh. "So doctor's orders are to eat nothing but fast food?"

You tap the side of your nose. "Yes, but no throwing it up and no nose candy to burn it off. If it helps, point out that every extra pound she puts on is another inch I can add to her breasts or buttocks." You pause, "Or hips, or lips or whatever. I'll warn you that I may have things come up next week, so while I should be available any day, the _time_ of day might be booked."

Lunch with Janice Templeton is done in the baking room of Cafe Sofrito. You blur your face, alter your lips and skin color, and use your half mask as you both eat.

"So, what exactly needed this cloak-and-dagger stuff, Warlock?"

Taking a sip of your drink you sigh. "So if I say 'Coil', what do you think?"

"Eh, yet another cape who's screwing around in the drug trade. Not nearly as impressive as a follow up to your Merchant capture," she flicks a hand dismissively.

You lean your elbows on the table you raised from the floor and give a toothy grin. "Wrong! Well, you are correct, he does deal drugs, but he _also_ has multiple groups of mercenaries, is spying on capes from all the gangs _and_ the Protectorate, and has like a half-dozen moles in the PRT."

Templeton drops her fork and rubs the heels of her hands in her eyes. "Jesus fuck. How in the hell…"

You spin her the same general story that you told Crystal, although you play up James as 'Crystal's boyfriend' and also a friend of yours. You're glad you had her eat for a while before you dropped the information on her, because Janice seems to have lost her appetite when you get done. She's going over scenarios in her head trying to scrape together enough forces to deal with up to a hundred-and-fifty bodies without letting anyone get wind of what's going on and failing.

"Fuck. If you give me the moles' names I can _try_ to keep them out of the loop, but it wouldn't last long before they overheard something, I'm sure. What's worse is that we don't have the space to hold more than like a dozen more people in our cells, and the local jail's pretty tapped out as well. Is there any way you can monitor Coil until next week? We'll have some space freed up Thursday, and hopefully more will go to a regional jail over the weekend. I could schedule a readiness check one of the days next week and turn it in to another capture." Her fingers run through the grey streak along the left side of her head. "And no matter how this turns out, Piggot's going to stick her nose in. With officers being turned she's going to flip her shit until you've signed NDAs. I'll need to call in the Protectorate as well, Armsmaster will be all over those laser rifles trying to figure out who made them."

[X][PRT] Yeah, you'll hold off, but dose him with Deep Web

"Dammit, Janet."

Janice gives you a flat stare. "How droll. Seriously, can you hold him off until next week?"

"Hold him off? " you scoff. "Yeah, but rather than have a mask-pulling Scooby-Do reveal I'm gonna make the guy flip his shit and reveal himself. When will you know when you'll have the space available?"

Taking a sip of her drink, Janice flips through her phone and is doing some guesstimation. "I'll check in with you Friday with something resembling a timeline. Maybe Tuesday?"

"That's probably doable. I've got some shit happening next week and knowing a definite day would be helpful."

"Hot date?"

Conjuring sparkles in the air you give the PRT officer some jazz hands. "Work related, actually."

You watch Janet mouth 'work related' and shake her head. "Capes," she sighs.

You take the time in the afternoon to do a bit of reading on curses, especially Fiendfyre. Not that you feel ready to test the spell out quite yet, but you do test a few other curses, including the purple flame curse that Dolohov used in the Department of Mysteries, and the good old fanon 'ribbon cutter', which ends up being more like whipping around a monomolecular chainsaw and causes you to do a _lot_ of repair work.

In between periods of spell practice, you pull up Amy's account and browse her stories. Well, actually, her favorites are pretty illuminating as well, with her older favorites skewing heavily in the girls' love direction, and the last month or so becoming more all-over-the-place. She even favorited a Warlock/Gallant fic two weeks ago that involved such impossible dude sex that you're not sure _magic_ would make it possible.

The stuff she's _written,_ especially recently, whoo boy. There's the series where she's the Queen of the World and you are her ever-loyal consort and lover. That has a fair number of favorites and some skimming tells you that the sex scenes are… almost Victorian in their wording. There is a lot about your 'turgid maleness' and the 'flower of her femininity'. The 'petals of her womanhood' shine with 'dew'. If you didn't know better, you'd think the scenes were describing erotic gardening. Even the most recent update is pre-Amy-touching-you, maybe things just weren't… real… maybe to her.

A more recent story from Thursday with a couple of chapters involves a cape high school AU where you're actually a student teacher and you and goth-Panacea are having a torrid affair in a janitor's closet by the second half of the first chapter. She's gotten into her stride now, because your 'enormous bitchbreaker' is 'taming' her self-insert, and a second chapter is given almost completely over to a lovingly-described bondage session at Warlock's 'lair-like apartment.' L O fuckin' L.

The most recent story was actually first posted Sunday night with a second chapter this morning, and has 'John 'Warlock' Williams' and 'Amelia 'Panacea' Smith' be the only two survivors of a crashed colony ship on a new world. With their techno-magical nanomachine-based powers they've established a homestead in the space of a few scant paragraphs and Amelia is already telling John that they need to 'do their duty' to populate this world. Your curiosity makes you do a search for 'breed' or 'bred' and it shows up over thirty times in ten thousand words worth of smut. Panacea's womb is 'fertile', and after Warlock knocks her up with his 'potent seed' the very next day she _knows_ she's pregnant and her breasts swell with milk. That's… she _knows_ better, so you chalk it up to yet another fetish of hers. Maybe you should see if there's a wet-nurse charm in your library somewhere….

Still, you almost feel like you need to give the girl a couple of non-dick related orgasms to take the edge off. Fucking her might just make her worse in the short term.

[X][Fanfic] Write a porny fic of your own and send it to Amy

After dinner with Crystal you send her links to Amy's capefixxx account, then sit down at your (stolen) laptop and crack your knuckles. Before you've written more than two words a soft litany of 'what the fuck' starts sounding from next to you where you're both sitting on your bed.

You decide to write the companion piece to 'Cascadia High', the high school AU. The extended bondage scene in the second chapter involves such incredible, boundary-breaking kink as blindfolds, handcuffs, and (shockingly) _spanking._ That's not to say that there's a problem with any of that, just that for someone writing about kinky bondage that it wasn't very kinky. Or bondage-y. Seriously, not even the cliche 'tying the girl spread-eagle to the bedposts'? You're not going to touch on the bondage part in your response chapter, but you're gonna learn a thing or two about pacing and anticipation.

Starting from the next morning where Gothacea wakes up in Warlock's bed you write from the teacher-cape's perspective as he carries the girl into his spacious bathroom and lavishes attention on her body in the shower, including a few lines about how he 'ran his fingers over her puckered little rosebud'.

Crystal breaks your train of thought with a fit of the giggles as she reads some of the queen stuff out loud. Of course, trying to talk like a pirate while she says 'and he plundered her depths' doesn't help her keep a straight face at all.

You go back to your writing and talk about how after they're clean he bends her over the vanity and shows her the buttplug with the stylized symbol on the end that she'll be wearing in school.

Unfortunately Crystal has now found the high school AU and is laughing and mocking her idea of bondage. You give her a shoulder nudge and she looks up from her tablet. "What?"

"Don't laugh at Amy's cluelessness at shit like that. How much experience do _you_ have with bondage?"

She does look a bit abashed. "Not that much, but still. Are you saying you know more than me?"

Keeping the smirk that wants to peek out under wraps you hum. "Yep. Want a quick refresher course, 'Mistress Crystal'?"

It's amusing watching her nose stick up in the air as she tries to look down at you. "Yes!"

With a flick of your fingers Crystal is stripped down to the lacy, see-through underwear that Aelfie had found, and a targeted _incarcerous_ has her arms bound behind her and further linked to her ankles. None of the conjured ropes are super tight, but they're more than enough to hold her as she twitches against them.

Floating your girlfriend upright in front of you, you stick a hand under her chin and bring her eyes up to meet yours. "Amy's written quite a lot, and I think you need to review it all, so you'll do it kneeling on the floor." You conjure a fairly slim buttplug and dildo and hit them both with animation charms—not as good as the fancy one Amy swiped, but perfectly suitable for temporary play. "You are not allowed to cum until I say so. If you do, everything stops and there's no more play." Holding up the toys you continue, "As I am a wonderfully kind man, you can choose one, the other, or both to assist you while you continue your literary endeavors."

Crystal's sky-blue eyes flick between the sex toys and your face a couple of times. Peeking in her head she's confused and curious, but totally willing to play along. "Uhh… as long as you're gentle, both."

You tut disapprovingly, "I should be addressed properly, girl."

Her mind immediately jumps to 'master', then shies away and offers up 'sir' before something clicks in her head. She lowers her head slightly and looks up at you through her long lashes. "Yes… my lord."

There's no stopping the pleased rumble from your throat. "God, you are a treasure, my dear." Nuzzling her neck you begin to murmur information to her as you lube up the vibrator and pull her panties to the side. "'Yellow' means to slow down, things are getting to be too much, 'green' means things are okay and to continue." Vibrator placed, you pick up the buttplug in one hand and gently ease a finger inside _her_ rosebud to cast the lubrication spell. You lean back and watch her face as you slowly, carefully, inch the plug into her previously-unexplored backdoor. "Red means 'stop now' and I will vanish all of the ropes and toys immediately. It is perfectly okay to decide to stop, if you feel you're done or this is too much, then please tell me. Do you understand?"

Wiggling a bit, Crystal's eyes focus on you again. "Yes, I understand," she wets her lips and gives you an aroused smile, "my lord."

"Lovely, my dear." You conjure a soft pillow for her to kneel on that places her at a good height at edge of the bed, arrange her tablet so she can see it, and animate both toys to start a gentle vibration. You pretend to turn back to your writing for a moment while Crystal collects herself. It's almost a minute before she speaks.

"My lord?"

"Hrm?"

"How do-how am I supposed to use the tablet?"

You give her disappointed look. "With your nose, of course. Your hands are bound!"

Crystal blinks a couple of times before looking back at the screen and leaning forward to try and click a link. Through your connection to her you feel how the toys shift inside her and tweak the vibration up for just a moment. With a yelp, she faceplants softly into the comforter before struggling upright. You assist by causing the vibrator to thrust shallowly as well. For some strange reason this doesn't seem to make it easier, but a few moments of additional struggle get her back upright and she carefully clicks on the next story. Once she starts reading you pet her hair and start the plug on a complementary rhythm with the vibrator.

Turning back to your writing, you finally get stuck in to it. You cover how Gothacea can feel the plug from her master with every step she takes down the hallways, and how, with the tiny lace panties and skirt that 'master Warlock' demanded, every time she sits down the plug pushes deeper and reminds her that he's going to claim her 'completely'

During his class they're editing papers and she is called up to go over her rough draft. Sitting next to her secret lover in front of her entire class Warlock makes casual conversation about word choices and run-on sentences as he sneaks a hand between her legs and brushes lightly over her panty-covered mound.

Next to you Crystal has switched to reading one of Amy's favorited stories. That one is blatant New Wave porn with only the barest attempt at name changes, like Vicky being 'Vera'. Apparently there's a chapter given over to 'Cindy', 'Alice', and 'Vera' having no-holes-barred lesbian sex, including multiple double-ended dildo action and lots of talk about grinding faces into cunts. You change the animation charms to ramp up in intensity over the next couple of minutes and go back to your work.

Back in the hallways of Cascadia High around lunchtime, Gothacea gets pulled into the janitor's closet again. She's brought to her knees as the buttplug is revealed to be remote-controlled and it is set on high. The pleasure from her ass is matched only by her awe as her older lover frees himself from his pants and drapes his 'enormous bitch-breaking cock' over her face. Using his belt he ties her wrists and forces her to deepthroat him, fucking her face while he alternately praises her oral skills and calls her a dirty little whore. Warlock unloads down her throat before gently cleaning her face—except for a few streaks of her mascara, which she's told to leave alone. Reclaiming his belt, she's made to press her hands again the wall as he brings her to the edge of orgasm again and again until the class bell rings. The poor girl is left with instructions that if she wants to cum she'll be 'in position' in his room after school lets out.

Petting your girlfriend's hair as she trembles and tries not to cum as she reads her cousin's most recent desire to be bred by you, you slow the thrusting down a bit to let her relax for a moment. "Still green, dear?"

Crystal tilts her head up and kisses your palm and nuzzles against your hand. "Green, my lord."

"Good girl. Let me finish this and we can continue."

Gothacea wonders about her instructions in her afternoon classes, but as the final bell sounds she has an epiphany and walks into her lover's classroom, stripping as the door closes behind her, ending with her skimpy panties hitting the floor as she climbs on his desk and presses her face against the wood, her ass arched up in the air showing the mark of his ownership.

The chapter ends as she feels Warlock behind her, the head of his cock nudging her 'dripping, fertile pussy.' You feel the cliffhanger will play really well with Amy.

Speaking of playing though, Crystal is playing right along the ragged edge of cumming and fighting it with all her might. You switch your underwear out with nothing and swing your legs over the end of the bed. "You've done good, sweetheart."

Breathing heavily, Crystal lifts glassy eyes to yours and back down to your cock as you slide over to place her between your legs. She leans forward almost touching you before she manages to find her voice. "M-May I, my lord?"

At your agreement she forgoes any slow buildup and quickly sucks you down as far as possible, lodging you in her throat. You run your fingers through her hair and murmur soft words down to her about how she's a good girl. "Get me nice and wet baby, I'm going to fuck you."

Shaking her head (with you still in her throat) you girlfriend pulls back and looks up at you wild-eyed. "No my lord," she pants, and you can feel her lost in fantasy in her head, "I want you to cum in my mouth first."

You groan as your hand fists in her long blonde locks and you tug her forward, "As my lady wishes." You slide into her throat again with a wet _gluck_ and she does her best to exceed Susan's skill. It's only a few short minutes later that you're whispering her name as she swallows greedily, her eyes closed as she struggles not to cum as well.

With a burst of magic she floats onto the bed, laying with her ass up and the gusset of her panties soaked with her arousal. You pull her panties to the side and remove the vibrator and vanish it, then fasten your fingers around the base of the plug.

"Leave it in." Crystal pants. "…my lord!" she adds with a yelp as you swat her ass.

You ramp up the vibration as you line yourself up with her dripping cunt and slide yourself in until your abs press against her ass. Crystal's toes curl and flex as she desperately tries to keep from cumming. You start thrusting hard and don't hold back as you bottom out with every stroke—there's no reason to extend her torment, and the feeling of her fluttering around your length is exquisite. Crystal seems to be beyond words as she gives sharp cries at every thrust, but her mind is all pleasure.

Feeling her try to pull herself back from the ragged edge you give her another spank and whisper the words she's been hoping for. "Cum for me, Crys."

Magical ropes flex as seemingly every muscle in her body locks up tight as she cums. Right as she relaxes, you loose a magically-charged burst of your essence that sends her off on another climax.

Vanishing the ropes and banishing her underwear off, you pull her into your arms and kiss her forehead. You may have used a bit too much magic, or maybe the bondage and play just flicked the right switches, because your girlfriend continues to twitch a bit as you card your fingers through her hair and gently scratch at her scalp.

It's a couple of minutes before she finally seems to come back to you. "You okay, baby?"

You can feel her smile against your neck. "That. Was. _Fucking_. _Awesome_."

Running a hand down her back, she feels almost liquid against you. "You did beautifully, my dear."

After some cuddles and cookies, you pick your lover up and carry her into the shower. "You ready for the plug to go?" At her nod you vanish it and smirk at the faces she makes at the loss, "So did it make the experience better, worse?"

Crystal gropes her own ass as she shakes her hips. "It wasn't as weird as I thought it might be." At your raised eyebrows she continues, "I'm totally not ready for anything like _that—_" she puts a hand on your cock and wiggles it—"to go anywhere near my poor little butthole though."

Hearing her say 'butthole' apparently tickles you just right because you laugh at her and then laugh harder when she pouts at you. "I could try searching for some spells that would help as well, but there's no hurry on any of it. You do what you feel comfortable with, and we can always use the whole red/yellow/green thing when it comes to bedroom activities. Cool?"

"Cool."

Back in bed, you hand over your chapter for Crystal to look over and watch with interest as a flush creeps down her chest. The double thumbs-up she gives you makes you chuckle as she puts the pad down and you gather her to you. "When're you going to send that to Amy?"

"She texted today about healing at some different place tomorrow—still part of Brockton General, but like their physical therapy place or something. I figured I'd text her a link right after we finish, especially if I can get her riled up beforehand."

Turning around in your embrace _just_ the right way to give you a face full of hair, Crystal laughs and then kisses you. "You're horrible, and I_ like _it."


	38. Week 6, Part II

The two of you jog with Taylor on Wednesday morning. Well, Crystal and Taylor jog, and you follow behind and look at their butts. Crystal's is as perfect as normal, but surprisingly Taylor is wearing tight yoga pants instead of the baggy sweats she had preferred. The skinny girl's ass isn't much to look at, but her legs are _amazing_.

Anyhow, the girls chat until Taylor splits off to head back to her house. On your way back to your apartment, the two of you discuss your plans for the day. You're supposed to be healing with Pan-pan, and Crystal was going to hang with S Klub after classes, but you fill her in on your plans to spy on the Undersiders in the evening so she can make excuses to the girls on why you're not there. You do promise to be available for the party they all want to go to tomorrow, though.

On the way back Crystal gets a text from Amy asking her if she's 'heard from Warlock this morning'. You take the hint and hop over to the lair. Amy's sent a couple of texts, but they all end by asking you to call her, so you just go ahead and do that.

The phone barely has time to dial before she picks it up. "Warlock!" The wind noise tells you that she's probably being shipped to Arcadia via Glory Express.

"What's the problem, my dear?"

Amy's voice drops down to a irritated mutter. "_Someone_ decided that they're going out with their boyfriend right after school and they have an appointment for a couple's massage that they just 'can't miss'. I know I said something about how you couldn't just pick me up at school, but…. could you pick me up after school? _Please_?"

[X][School] Pick her up on a motorcycle

"I can totally pick you up, my dear. Just text me as you walk out the front door and be ready to go."

"Uh…" she audibly hesitates, "you're not gonna do something embarrassing are you?"

You pull back and stare at the phone. "Do you _honestly_ think I'd do that do you?"

"No," you hear her mutter softly, "sorry."

"Not a problem, just let me know when you're ready, sweetheart."

You spend some of your free time in the morning and early afternoon practicing with the motorcycle to make sure that Diego's skills have come over correctly. Pulling Aelfie into the planning, she's helpful with getting the timing of some things correct; she doesn't quite understand how a motorcycle works, but apparently some warriors did similar things with horses, so the vague plan you have in mind isn't new to her.

You're already in place by the time you get the text from Amy telling you she's walking outside. Firing up the custom motorcycle you lane split at speed while disillusioned right until you're at the entrance to the school. As you pass the barrier you rev the engine higher and dispel the invisibility, appearing out of nowhere on a black-and-chrome steed with wheels of fire.

Amy has stopped part way down the stairs leading to the pick-up line and is gaping as you thread your way between cars. Your sexy jailbait girlfriend is wearing something like a Catholic-school-girl version of a Slytherin uniform, with a dark green plaid skirt, black tights or stockings, and a tight green sweater. The snake, charmed silver, is acting like a belt with its head draped over the curve of her hip.

You pull up right in front of the girl and smokejump to the step below her and hold out your hand. "Shall we, my dear?"

Eyes wide, Amy puts her hand in yours and you mime a kiss to the back before leading her down the rest of the stairs to the bike, standing upright in defiance of physics.

"You're not wearing your coat?" she murmurs out of the corner of her mouth.

"No, it'd catch on the back wheel. Problem?"

"All of the girls are staring at your ass!"

You chuckle and produce a helmet from thin air with your mask airbrushed on the front. Amy slides it on her head as you take her backpack and purse and 'magic them away' thanks to Aelfie.

With the helmet on you can talk to her via the enchantment on it. "And every man here is going to have wet dreams about your sexy self strutting down those stairs, so I think we're even." You lift her over the bike and her skirt rides up _just_ enough to show you that she's wearing stockings and you don't bother to hold in your pleased groan. "Did Aelfie give those to you?"

"Yep." There might be a bit of smug in her tone, but you're okay with that.

Hopping on as well, you make sure she's holding on tight and rev the bike. A blonde streak resolves itself into Glory Girl hovering next to you and you hear Amy's irritated huff in your ear. "May I help you, Victoria?" you ask as you snag her hand and mime a kiss to it as well.

You and the bike get a once-over and a tiny lip nibble. "Are you seriously going to ride a motorcycle that's on fire all the way to the hospital?" Vicky asks.

You gently push the flying cape back a few feet. "Of course not, dear girl. We're going to _fly_."

Dumping the clutch the rear wheel squeals as it bursts into flame. Amy's arms squeeze you even harder as the front wheel comes off the ground and you wheelie for a hundred feet or so before the bike lifts off the pavement fully, trailing fire. The only noise you're getting from your passenger is a high-pitched squeal that you're unsure is good or bad, but you swing around to take another pass by the front of Arcadia and she loosens one hand long enough to wave at her sister before you move out of the airspace and disappear into smoke.

The portkey you'd queued up drops you above Brockton General's campus a second later, and you idle back down as you slowly glide in to a landing in front of the therapy center. Hopping off the bike again you turn to help your girlfriend off and get an almost-vibrating armful of Amy.

"That. Was. Awesome! Can we go driving normally sometime too?"

Swinging her around you hold her curvy body to you before reluctantly setting her down. "Sure. If you're really looking for something powerful between your legs other than me, I can even teach you to ride it."

Pulling her helmet off, you take her hand and walk towards the doors. Time to heal so you can play later.

After picking Amy up, you find yourself healing at Brockton General's physical therapy center. It's not just people with sports injuries—you and Amy find yourself regrowing limbs (she's faster), fixing burned skin (you're faster, oddly), and fixing old ladies' arthritis among other issues. It's quite a bit different from how healing goes in the hospital, with them wheeling people in and out. Here you're walking from room to room and fixing groups of people with similar injuries at a time. You are a _little_ afraid that eliminating the aches of the entire knitting circle will end up with you (or your lawyer, who handles packages for you) buried in hand-knit robes, but you'll find a way to deal.

At the end of your first hour the two of you commandeer a break room so you can take you mask off and both of you can relax. Giving Amy a kiss, you both grab a drink and you see an opening when she pulls out her phone and starts browsing what looks like capefixxx.

"So, I found out that people have started writing fanfic about me."

Amy pauses for just a second before she calmly takes a sip of her own drink. "Oh really?"

You sit down and pull out your own phone and pull up your account. You haven't set the story to be published, but all it's waiting on is a button-press. "Yeah, like multiple thousands of words about me have sprung up in just the last like two weeks."

"I look at stuff about me occasionally just to keep up with it, but you could probably just ignore it," Amy offers.

"Nah, I think it's fascinating. Like there's the one story where I apparently have some kind of relationship with Gallant of all people." You sigh and look over at her pinking slightly. You wait until she finishes swallowing her drink before you continue. "At least they have me topping, I ain't no bottom bitch.

"But anyhow, I found another pretty interesting story. It only has two chapters at the moment, but it stars me and you." Looking over inside her head, there are warning sirens blaring and she's unconsciously considering using her portkey to try and escape. "So it got stuck in my head and I just couldn't sleep last night until I wrote a little chapter in response."

The mental sirens taper off with a funny little squawk as her head turns slowly to look at you. "You did?"

"Yep." You publish the story and send her a link, "Here, read it and tell me what you think. I hope you get a little thrill out of it."

There's dead silence as she starts reading, going progressively redder as she continues. In the hallway you can feel the admin moving in your direction, probably to ask if you're done with your break, so you stand and wrap your arms around her from behind. Even her breathing stops as you murmur in her ear.

"Does it feel good when someone writes an omake to your story?"

Amy's lips part right as Tabitha knocks on the door. "Are you ready to continue?"

"Sure thing, just let me put my mask back on." Ducking back down you place a kiss right behind Amy's ear. "By the way, d'you know what happened to the buttplug?"

"Ehhhhhhhhh….."

You stand back up and put your mask back on as you continue to muse out loud. "I guess I could try and summon it. But there was a command it had that would make it start vibrating. I might give that a try and see if I can hear it first." You open the door and look back. "I think the command was something like _vibrit._"

Panacea does a wonderful job of pretending the plug didn't just suddenly spring to life in her ass. "M-maybe Aelfie put it away?"

Standing and walking beside you, there's a noticeable extra sway in her hips and you can't help but trail a hand down her back to pat her bottom. "Perhaps."

Over the course of the next hour you play with the plug's settings, never going high enough to really risk Amy getting caught out, but enough to keep her on a slow simmer.

Come the next break, Amy closes the door behind her and stares at you with a…healthy glow on her face. "You_ knew_."

"I did!" You smile as she scowls. "I would never do anything to make you embarrass yourself in public though." You step closer to her, backing her against the wall. "Do you like this teasing?" Looming over her you look down and catch her eyes. "Do you like it when I control the plug in your ass?"

Amy brings her hands up and plays with the ankh at her neck. "Y-yes."

"So you like the idea of wearing _my_ symbol, the one that marks you as _mine?_"

Her lips part ever so little and she softly whispers _yes._

"I wasn't going to start like this. I was planning on sweeping you up in my arms and carrying you to my bed," you take her hands in yours and press kisses to the back of each, "tenderly strip you bare and make slow, gentle love to you." Turning her hands over you kiss her palms before wrapping one hand around her wrists and pinning them to the wall above her head. "And I still want to do that, but I think you're also a sexy, kinky little minx and you want a little spice, not just vanilla. Is that right?"

Amy's dilated pupils tell you all you need to know, but she still bites her lip and nods at you.

You murmur the green/yellow/red directions to her before you continue. "Actually, yesterday I was reading your stories and when I decided to write a response Crystal was sitting right next to me. So _she_ started reading your stories."

"Oh god…"

You _tsk_ softly. "Your cousin is so childish sometimes though, she giggled about something and so I tied her up," you flick your eyes to her hands still pinned above you, "stripped her down and made her read all of your stories with a vibrator in her _pussy_ and plug inside her _ass_."

Amy's thighs are grinding against each other as she stares right into your eyes. She's paying full attention to what you're saying and each word is ratcheting her arousal higher.

"When I was done I pulled her up—still tied—and made her submit her body to me." You run a severing-charm enhanced finger down her chest and part both blouse and bra before laying your warm hand on her belly. Amy arches into your touch as you kiss her roughly before you pull back. "You want to submit to me as well, don't you?"

"Ohmygodyes…"

"Anyone could walk in on us and they'd see you, your hips rocking, aching for my cock. They'd know you're mine, wouldn't they?"

"Yessssss…"

Brushing your hand back up you uncover one pale, puffy nipple and trail a magic-enhanced finger around the areola. "You've been so good, so _submissive,_ that you deserve to cum." You slide your hand down over her skirt to cup her pussy as she whispers a little prayer.

"Oh god yes please James…"

You pause at that and give her a frown. "What did you call me?"

She blinks, swallows, and blinks again before her eyes go wide. "Master! M-master, _please_, I'm sorry!"

You chuckle and trail your hand down far enough to feel where her smooth skin gives way to silk stocking-tops and back up to the treasure between her thighs. "Much better, my dear." You slip the lace of her panties aside and collect some of her wetness with your finger. Bringing it to your lips you taste her as she watches you, humming as her heady taste reaches your tongue.

"Unfortunately I think we might be out of time, so you'll have to wait until we're done healing, someone could walk in…."

"Master, please no, let your mistress cum!"

"Fuck, you're perfect," you groan, sliding your hand into her panties and through the thatch over her slit, and slip one finger into her tight, sweltering depths. You levitate her off the floor so you can get a better angle, add a second finger and hook them against her g-spot as you bring your thumb down on her clit. A thought ramps up the intensity of the plug in her ass as well as you read her mind to bring her right to the edge of orgasm.

"God, you are so fucking tight. I'm going to absolutely ruin you with my cock." You growl into her ear, "You'll never fit anyone else but me, will you?"

"No," she whispers.

"Who am I?"

"_Master,_" she says, like a prayer.

A spark of magic throws her over the edge and you swallow the full-throated moan that she gives as she comes undone in your arms. Her mind has whited-out in pleasure and she bucks against you furiously. You coax her through another, less-violent peak, then a third. Finally wrung out, you bring her into your arms and carry her over to a chair and cuddle her in your lap.

A few gentle cleaning charms clear the sweat from her brow and you give her little sips of water as she recovers. "Are you okay, Amy?"

She rolls her head on your shoulder and finally looks up at you. "I thought I was going to _die_."

"Of pleasure, I hope."

One of the softest, sweetest smiles you've ever seen steals its way onto her face. "Yes." She blinks at you, "Um, master."

You kiss her forehead and pull her tighter to you, "No baby, just Warlock, or even James—I've made sure no one's listening."

"So no one would've walked in on us?"

"Of course not! You're _mine_, I'm not gonna let just anyone walk in and see you!" You chuckle a bit as she burrows closer to you. "Now, that said, we probably have like ten minutes before Tabitha comes knocking." You absently start repairing her clothes, although you take it slow and make sure that plenty of skin contact is involved.

Amy rubs her head against your chest, reminding you of nothing more than a big cat. "M'kay."

By the time Tabitha does show up Amy has mostly managed to get herself together, although she has a hell of a glow about her. Her bedside manner goes from brusque to saintly as she serenely heals everyone she comes into contact with. There has to be half a dozen guys who fell hard in lust just watching her sway her sexy hips past them as she walked around with a broad smile on her face.

You want to keep this beautiful creature that Amy's become all to yourself for just a bit longer, so as soon as you leave the center you whisk her off to your lair. Aelfie provides a light dinner and the two of you chat as you eat before you pick her up and carry your brunette girlfriend to the bed.

Once there she reaches for your pants but you take her hands in yours and kiss her. "Nope, not right now. Right now we're not master and mistress; we're boyfriend and girlfriend and we're just going to make out for a bit. Not everything has to be heavy, let's just enjoy ourselves."

You sit on the bed and are immediately pounced on by a wild Amy. The two of you spend some time kissing and exploring each other's body. As much as you really want to fuck her into a puddle of satisfied goo, you're afraid to push quite that fast. Instead, you both lose the shirts after a bit and you trace the freckles that lead into her cleavage with fingers and tongue, while Amy runs her hands along your muscles and leaves little bite marks along your neck and pecs that she pointedly doesn't heal.

Unfortunately you find that while your girlfriend's puffy nipples are incredibly sensitive, they're not _quite_ sensitive enough for her to cum from them alone. A magic tongue solves that issue, and you discover that a relaxed Amy gets very giggly after an orgasm. You explore that particular revelation a bit more until you realize that she's going to be expected back at the Pelham house soon and pull away from her with a last kiss.

Amy tries her best pout to lure you back, but you pull her to sit at the edge of the bed and summon a set of platinum bracelets. Fastening them around her wrists you slide the ring on your finger and watch as she pokes at the symbol of the Hallows that dangle from each band.

"Want to guess what they do?"

"Mark me as yours?" Amy asks with a smile.

"Well yes," you smile back at her, "but also _this_."

The bracelets glow faintly before a leash of light springs into existence between your hand and her neck at the same time her wrists snap together behind her. With a gentle tug she comes off the bed and ends up right in your personal space. Dismissing the leash, you gather her into your arms as she turns her face up to you. You summon her phone and hand it to her. "Take a couple of pictures of us and show them to Crystal when you talk to her next—in person only."

That unleashes a bit of a monster as you're prodded into a number of provocative poses both with your mask on and off but with your face blurred slightly. She seems to especially enjoy the ones with the leash showing brightly and the video she had you take where she asks you to change the ankh to your symbol, 'so that everyone will know you own me, _master.'_"

After a few more kisses, Amy finally heads back to the Pelhams' and you change into your costume. Aelfie pops in and gives you a look. "You left the present under her pillow?"

"Yes, but your present not full-sized!"

"Small steps, Aelfie. Was the note with it?"

The house-elf nods, and you head into the scrying chamber to verify that the Undersiders are still heading out. Ten minutes of peering in a mirror later and you find them still getting read and hashing out last minute changes to the path they're considering taking. You head back out and ask Aelfie to remain on Crystal-watching duty, fire off a couple of texts to the girls to let them know you'll be 'busy' and pop over next door to the warehouse that Coil's pet capes will be hitting.

As much as you'd like to booby-trap the place with pranks you decide to take the high road (for once) and just monitor the situation. You're curious what Coil finally decided on for the mission; he had pondered requesting they retrieve some of the drugs and do a drop-off, but assumed that Grue would object. He was considering having Tattletale take some anyway to test her limits of what she found acceptable.

While you wait for the night's entertainment you sign in to PHO and post a link to that slashfic in your thread—well, not _directly_, the last thing you want is the evil electronic eye of Dragon looking your way, but the link to search results of 'Warlock/Gallant' with a chibi Clockblocker exclaiming 'Bullshit!' starts a flood of people overreacting to some serious bromance. Really, just because the docking/sounding scene was physically impossible was no reason to call the story horribly written! You respond to a couple of posts explaining that you actually _do_ have enough olive oil to coat two guys like that—buying in bulk saves money after all.

Leaving that cesspit to fester for a bit after your last sally, you watch as the Undersiders approach on Bitch's dogs. They're taking their time and scanning the sky, so you turn to the mirror you had repaired and scry Tattletale again. At this range it only takes two or three minutes to form the image, and they're barely at the side door they've decided to slip in.

Regent is actually the one who jimmies the lock—he pulls a bump key and pops it open in less than a minute. You'd already checked for people, so you're unsurprised when they encounter no issues with people hiding inside. Lisa directs Grue and Regent to where a small amount of money is stashed, and while the guys collect that and Bitch stands guard outside she grabs any documentation she can find and sneaks cocaine and what you think is Adderall into the backpack she's carrying.

Once the three inside come together they head back out to pull a number of gas cans off the dogs. They head back inside to spread a little liquid love and you kill the scry to look around.

…you are _completely_ unsurprised to see a floating platform about three miles out. You've been having such a good week, _something_ was bound to happen.

Rune's not heading directly towards you, but depending on how fast things start smoking it's completely possible that the Undersiders will have a bit of a fight on their hands. A Supersensory charm tells you that Rune and Victor are present, along with a third figure you've never seen personally. They're wearing a Nazi uniform along with a WWII-vintage gas mask. Coil's information calls him 'Nebeltrupp', and he's some kind of indirect-fire Blaster.

You…

[X][Undersiders] Wait to see if there's an issue, then step in

The back-and-forth scan pattern that L'il Miss Nazi is flying sweeps just far enough so that they have a line of sight on one of Bitch's dogs. Victor has some kind of optic and immediately starts gesturing to the other two and heading directly for the warehouse.

The Undersiders walk back out and start getting onto their rides. Given that you can see in the dark and have super-senses, you're not sure what the visibility is for normal people.

Neville Nebeltrupp turns to the pile of rubble on the back of the platform and puts a hand on it. The junk shrinks and turns into missiles or rockets, all growing out of the rubble at an angle. Victor makes some gestures, and two of the rockets move to follow them, pivoting left and up before launching into the sky with a howling scream.

That seems to get Tattletale's attention, and the dogs get the spurs put to them. Seconds after they clear the area, the rockets hit and explode into clouds of oily smoke. The second set of rockets—launched moments after the first—hit ahead of the dogs and Tattletale is the only one to cover her face in time as the group charges through.

You apparate past them and watch as the dogs stumble out of the cloud and tag each cape as they emerge. Grue, in his motorcycle helmet, seems largely unaffected. Tattletale seems…okayish. Regent and Bitch are swaying and wiping at their eyes behind masks, but the dogs seem to have been the worst hit. There's a chorus of pained yelps and their heads toss as whatever they ran through apparently starts burning eyes and noses. Grue floods the area with more smoke—unfortunately a completely different color than what they ran through—as the group stumbles towards another warehouse that Tattletale points out.

The Nazi party has closed the distance some, and Nebel sends up another set of rockets that pepper the roof of the warehouse, blowing chunks out.

Inside the battered structure, the markers gather together and go… down somehow. You don't know if there's some kind of sewer entrance or smuggling tunnels or what, but they're below street level and halfway across the street before another ripple-fire of rockets tears the rest of the roof off.

Down the street you can see headlights from at least two vehicles approaching at speed.

You….

[X][Rocketman] Attack the platform

Rune's platform seems close enough, so you smokejump to it and snatch the smaller wannabe-wizard, stunning her and apparating to the far roof in the space of two breaths.

Dropping the red-and-black-robed girl you turn and watch the platform perform a bellyflop from about thirty feet up. "Aelfie, take her to the lair and keep her stunned."

You smokejump down and stun both capes before flicking diagnostics at them. Nebel has two broken legs, a couple of cracked ribs, and a concussion from where he toppled over, but Victor is break-free, although he's going to be one big walking bruise. "Both of these guys too, Aelfie."

Nebel disappears as the first truck rolls up and four skinheads leap from the bed. "Get back you cocksucker!" one yells, brandishing a pistol one-handed.

A light mental touch lets you know exactly how much pressure there is on that trigger and where he's aiming. "Nah, mate."

He fires and you shield even though the shot would have gone wide right. You laugh and smokejump behind the group, stunning them and the two guys in the truck before turning to face the van that's coming up on you. You hit it with a transfiguration and meld all the doors shut and windows up and charm the glass unbreakable. Almost immediately after there's a muzzle flash and everyone visible clutches their ears and (probably) screams.

Fucking idiots.

You look back and see that Victor has been popped away by your elf. Walking over to the van you lift it up on a platform of asphalt to keep them from driving off and burn a copy of your mask into both sides. Taking a couple of pictures you wave to the gesturing idiots inside, stick the other idiots in the bed of the bed of the truck and smokejump away to check in on the Undersiders.

Their tracers are a block away when you catch up. They're inside a different building and recovering. The dogs are out of their meatsuits and seem to be unaffected now, while Regent and Bitch have wet cloths and are dabbing at their eyes. Tattletale is doing the same while talking into a phone. Grue is stalking around, hands flexing and leaking little bits of smoke as he tries to stand guard. They'll probably be fine waiting for a pick-up, right?

[X][Undersiders] Just leave

Back at your lair you transfigure three cells, silence them, charm them impenetrable, and heal the major injuries of the two guys. You also remove hidden weapons and possible tracking devices, and ensure the phones you took from them are turned off, although with the unplottable wards you put up yesterday your phone no longer seemed to be able to find you when you were under the wards.

You do a quick scan of Rune's head—as you vaguely remember from her backstory her family had stopped being _obviously_ racist, but she fell back in with the hardline parts of the Herren clan. After being more-or-less pushed off on Kaiser by her uncle for money and status, she's actually wondering if all of this bullshit is worth it. Make no mistake, she's still racist as hell, but she's increasingly convinced that what Kaiser's doing isn't advancing white supremacy, but instead just pissing around accomplishing nothing.

Nebeltrupp is actually one of Derek's cousins—Nick—having triggered only recently. Apparently the Herren clan has a method to kinda force triggers that involves what you would consider a redneck spirit quest, drugs, and something like hypnotherapy. You suspect the work of a Master of some kind, because a quick skim of his memories shows him at a meeting of the clan about a month ago and then he's suddenly living a WWII war highlight reel with explosions and the entire Red Army closing in on him. He gets shot and his squadmates are all wounded and about to die when he snaps and triggers. And apparently he was _actually_ shot, you know, for verisimilitude.

You saved Victor for last. The skill leech is a pretty true believer in white supremacy, actually loved his original fiancee, and goes out of his way to target non-whites with his knowledge vampire powers. He and Othala have a rocky marriage—neither wanted it, but Joseph's (his real name's) power was unique enough that the Herren clan wanted him brought into the fold.

Joseph has a fancy-sounding job title as part of the HR department in Medhall that lets him go anywhere he wants in the building and make numerous trips outside the city. He's used this to meet with other pharmaceutical researchers working with other companies to try and recruit them and drained their knowledge partially or completely. This is also when he has affairs—he has all the skill in the world to hide the fact that he sleeps around, but prefers not to.

You brain dump Victor, but the sheer weight of the random-ass skills he has accumulated means it's going to take a while to filter all of them into your consciousness. It's late enough tonight that you really don't feel like trying to chain-apparate to New York to turn them over would be a good idea since you have a meeting tomorrow morning, so you make sure Aelfie is willing to watch them and turn in for the night. Perhaps you can delegate turning them over to Calle in the morning as well…

[X][Prisoners] Talk to Quinn Calle and let him handle contacting the NY PRT

You text Quinn that you captured three E88 capes and that the local joint's full, does he have any contacts with the NY PRT?

There a bit of back-and-forth, but he does know a guy, so he does his thing while you set up cameras to record the napping Nazis and make sure they have food, water, some random books, and a nook to use the bathroom in, even if the toilets just use conjured water and vanish waste. You also stick notes giving a simple description of what's going to happen ('You are being monitored, do not try to escape or you will be rendered unconscious, you will be turned in to the NY PRT as soon as arrangements are made. Have a great day!'), and retire to bed.

In the morning you hop over to check them out and Nebel is unconscious, having apparently tried to use one of the walls to create rockets with, Victor is meticulously going over every inch of the place to try and find a way to break out, and Rune has her face in a book. You'd assume that she wasn't bothered by her predicament if her grip on the old novel wasn't white-knuckled and she didn't seem to be turning pages at all. None of the cages face each other, so they don't know for sure if the others got away or not.

[X][Jail] Write-in

Wait, didn't Rune trigger in solitary? You wince and expand the cell a bit—it was already ten-by-ten or so, but you add some additional space and charm one wall to be a window.

"Aelfie?" you call, then kneel to talk to the elf when she pops in. "The girl has had problems with being jailed before. If she starts looking panicked, knock her out."


	39. Week 6, Part III

You fire off a text to both Laserdream and Panacea about your houseguests, and that they shouldn't interact with them because they were being recorded. You don't get a response from Amy, as class is in session, but your college girlfriend seems exasperated with you having gotten into a fight without backup. Your response that they had to know you were there for it to be a fight doesn't calm her down any.

You're in your history class at the same time you're picking up Quinn from his office. "It's early enough that we're going to hop from here to the roof of a building near the DA's office so you get a feel for things first. I don't want you feeling anything less than confident about your landing."

Quinn, hair slicked back and his suit game on point, swallows nervously. "I'd appreciate it."

To distract him you ask about the NY PRT branch. "They'll be ready to receive them any time today."

"After lunch I'd think," you offer. "And I'm videoing them in the cells I created, but let's not mention that part if we don't have to."

"…do they know they're being recorded?"

"Yep," you show him the paper that you put on the outside of the glass. "I want to see if they accuse me of anything."

"It _is_ generally a good idea not to give law enforcement anything more than the bare minimum they ask for and even then only grudgingly, but that's generally when you're on the other side, you know."

You shrug and hold out an arm. "Grab on and let's test this." You hit your lawyer with an anti-nausea and apparate as soon as he holds on tight enough.

Appearing about a block away from the high-rise that the DA operates out of, Quinn jerks and blinks. "That was unpleasant. Not as bad as you said, but unpleasant."

"Yeah, the first time is the most disorienting though. Now this time we're going to come out into smoke. We'll be facing the building, so we can just walk in all smooth. Ready?"

"Ready."

The second jump was smooth as silk and Quinn didn't miss a beat as you cross the courtyard into the offices. There were reporters around, but neither of you deign to give them a look, and a gesture as you neared the doors opened them for the both of you.

Security was pretty professional, they eye your costume as you walked up and obviously and decided it wasn't their job to try and stop you, so you're waved through the metal detector without any issues. For some reason, despite the otherwise busy morning, you have the elevator car all to yourselves, though.

Once in the conference room law and order was quickly established and the DA starts asking questions establishing how you know things about the Merchants. Browsing his mind finds him to not be on the take from anyone obvious and to be a decent person—a bit too religiously-leaning for your liking, fairly self-righteous but not quite to the extent it makes you want to punch him. More than once.

A question about how you knew the depot had been a depot had us following a thread of your Merchant stalking backwards slowly. Rather than slowly and tediously go through it, you decide to cut to the chase.

"Mr. Rosenthal, let me preempt the questions. I knew about the Commercial District location because I had attempted to find a man named 'Shaggy', who supposedly had control over a portion of the gang. I knew _that_ name from a raid I had done on a Merchant-held location on Cooks Avenue something like two weeks before."

Before any follow up questions could be asked, one of the assistants leans forward and murmurs something softly. You turn to Quinn and flick your hand in a 'any idea?' gesture and get a small shake in response.

The assistant is the one who speaks up. "Were you assisting the Protectorate at that time?"

"No. I investigated the house and found two people. I was able to get information from one of them about other people in the gang, including this Shaggy character from a Randy something—Johansen, I believe. Once I was done with that I took some of the phones, called 911 with one, the PRT hotline with the the other, and had a third phone dictate a little speech about what I had found. Once I vacated I stuck around the area long enough to see Velocity come into the area and left."

"Do you happen to remember the contents of the speech to dispatch?"

It was something like, "This is a recorded message by an unnamed cape. I am on Cooks Ave, and there are two Merchants who I have apprehended. The front door is locked, it's like Motel Six in his joint, I'll leave the light on for ya." You hold up a hand, "I hadn't fully decided on the Warlock name at the time, I really wanted to go with Myrddin.

Dipping into her mind you see that _Velocity _had claimed the capture on those Merchants, but some of the details hadn't added up. Someone was gonna be in _trouble_….

Mr. Rosenthal took back over, asking you if you have any video or pictures—'I didn't archive video like I increasingly do now, I would have to look.'—along with some follow up questions about what was in the building.

Over the course of the deposition, all of the attorneys become more… friendly, you suppose, when it becomes obvious you weren't going to play dumb word games and actually supply useful information. Yes, some of their questions were answered with 'it's powers related', and Quinn interjects and confers with you on particulars and how much detail you should give in some cases, but by the end there were satisfied looks all around, even on Quinn's face.

After a round of handshakes you're taken to the windows that overlook the courtyard. There's a number of additional news crews all set up, but security had set up a cordon so you won't be mobbed before you can open the doors at least. You spend a moment conferring with Quinn and making a request of the milling lawyers before you head for the elevator.

Back on the ground floor neither of you break stride as you power-walk out of the building and above the crowd on an elevated platform courtesy of yours truly. Setting down with a dry fountain as a backdrop, you create a by-now standard lectern, turn and address the group.

"Ladies and Gentlemen standing here, and party people everywhere, it's getting to be lunchtime and I'm not going to stand here and talk to you when I could instead be doing something enjoyable like eating. So this is going to be quick."

"Are you really Clockblocker's kid?!" gets shouted from the milling crowd.

You gasp audibly and hold your hand to your chest as if wounded. "That is _privileged information_ and the only reason you would know that is if someone was _spying_ on an _intimate_ discussion between the lovely Panacea and myself. You should be ashamed of yourselves." Still holding your hand over your heart, you look off into the distance. "I will neither confirm nor deny the persistent rumors that that _horrible man_ left myself, my older step-sister, and my poor mother Skidmark after fifteen years of glorious marriage for some hussy named _Dragon_, of all things.

"And furthermore—" you begin, but the rest is drowned out by a cacophony of honks that makes attempts to sound like 'Flight of the Bumblebee'. Fuck, they couldn't keep a goddamn tune, it's a good thing you're not paying them anything.

A sky-darkening amount of geese swarm above your heads, the mass swirling and undulating. A single flyer, strangely clock-patterned, dives towards you with a rabid-sounding hiss and you shoot sparks at it. It joins back with the group and they move with purpose, dipping their wings and looking to stoop down on you.

"No father! I shall use your own powers against your minions! _Chronal Shield!_"

A brilliant blue pulse shoots from your outstretched hand and with the sound of a million ticking clocks the geese are frozen, falling around you to the cries of the onlookers. Quinn, from behind your shoulder whispers 'holy _shit_' with a vehemence that tells you that his perfectly-coiffed hair is probably a bit mussed.

Seconds after the last honk sounds everyone stands and looks around at the geese embedded around them. All of the birds have landed beak-first in the ground and are shining white like marble. A soft tone sounds from your lawyer's phone.

"They got the picture."

"Excellent," you say, then project your voice again. "Once again, Brockton Bay is saved from the depredations of Clockblocker and his malicious minions!"

You clap and a mournful honk sounds from the statues and startles not a few screams from throats. Vanishing the lectern, you step back and make sure Quinn has a grip on your arm. "Brockton Bay, you've been a great audience. I'll be here all week, try the veal, tip your waitstaff. Thank you and goodnight!" The two of you disappear in a puff of smoke and confusion.

Back in his office, Quinn collapses to a chair and stares at the ceiling. "What in the fuck was that. I can't believe…"

Laughing, you check him with a diagnostic to make sure he isn't about to pass out. "Relax, I was in full control the entire time. So they took the picture?"

He fiddles with his phone and a moment later you have a handful of shots from the upper floors showing that the 'birds' landed in a way that just happens to spell out 'LOL' from above, with everyone stationed in the 'O'.

"Perfect. Go ahead and send that or leak it to whoever you think will appreciate it the most."

You have a nice lunch with Aelfie as you thank her for watching the captives and assisting with the goose prank. You have the local news turned on at your apartment as the station does a 'live on location' about the statues right around the time the conjuration timer runs out and they all disappear. The honest confusion is lovely.

(This will be inserted back during the week as well; it should have happened as part of Thursday.)

Quinn's contact with the NY PRT is a sergeant named Luis Prior. Through him, Quinn let the NY branch know you'd be willing to turn over the three Empire capes because you were 'unsure that storing so many capes in the Brockton Bay facility wouldn't cause security concerns'.

…transparent as hell, but apparently a fiction that everyone was going to run with. You did get, via Quinn's office, a official complaint from the local PRT that more-or-less reprimanded you for not giving them the right of first refusal on the captives. It's labeled as coming from Piggot's desk, but looking at the stilted verbiage you're pretty sure the original note said something like 'So I heard you was a little bitch. Fuck you for crying to New York you little bitchboy' and it had to go through a _lot_ of editing before they were willing to send it.

Anyhow, after lunch you walk up to the (non-glass) sides of the cells, silently open a hole, and hit each cape with a stun/bodybind/incarcerous combo. You loop a rope over each of them and appear in Quinn's conference room, your lawyer joining you few moments later.

"They are apparently in position on the roof, waiting. We need to get there in the next five minutes. You are going to take _years_ off my life," he mutters to you.

"You're getting free 'cosmetic alterations' out of it, so at least you'll leave a good-looking corpse," you respond, vigorously air-quoting.

"We're not going to appear off the side of the building and die, are we? Was that a warning that I need a touch-up before we go?"

You'd scryed the rooftop drop-off and even made a portkey and tested it via broom earlier in the day. "Nah, I don't feel like dying today, I got plans later." You hand Quinn one end of the rope and tap it with your hand. It glows blue, and you smirk behind your mask as he eyes it suspiciously. "You wanna say the magic word?"

"No—"

You're whisked away spinning to a stop on the helipad of the PRT New York building. Reaching out, you steady Quinn and do your best to project a curious eyebrow at the almost twenty PRT agents standing around with guns at the low-ready. Probably not a time to act out too much, but you're unwilling to be cowed by a show of 'force'. "Delivery for a Sgt. Prior?"

A black guy stepped up, clearly trying to seem unamused by this. "I didn't order anything."

"It's from a secret admirer."

"Oh for fuck's sake…"

You both look over at Quinn, who seems like he was seriously regretting things like 'leaving the house today' or 'taking me as a client'.

YouI turn back and cleared your throat. "Three Empire capes, Victor, Rune, and the newest—I think—one, Nebeltrupp."

Waving some agents with foam sprayers up he eyes you. "Calle gave me the basics, do you have any additional details about their abilities?"

There's an odd ping in your mental radar from one of the agents standing around the roof access, so you keep a bit of thought on them as you offer some assistance. "They were on a platform being controlled by Rune and were attacking another group in the Bay—the Undersiders, if you're familiar?" At the headshake and wave you continue, "So I blitzed them and they didn't have a chance to actually put up a fight. However, Rune did not seem to handle being restricted like they are well, may have an issue with confined spaces. Nebel makes rockets out of… anything, I guess, he was using random debris. The rockets launched what _looked_ like chemical weapons once, and a second salvo exploded a roof." There's a noticeable rise in the twitchiness of the sprayers pointing at him all of a sudden. "Victor is a skill vampire, or skill leech, or whatever you want to call it, and I don't know if it's limited by sight. I could feel him trying to use it while being on the other side of a wall, so look out for that."

Some additional uneasy shifting later you vanish ropes and let them foam each cape separately. Quinn passes over some paperwork and you get a handshake from the good Sergeant. You're about to head back when you finally figure out what's going on in the strange agent's head.

It's Legend, in disguise.

His shard doesn't whisper into his mind like Scion shards do—the dead piece of Eden inside him, no the _chunks_—merely sigh and groan, the death rattles of the beast a macabre, maddening melody. You don't know why this shard is so different from Gallant's or Coil's, perhaps it's because he'd been given one of the original, more powerful versions of their vials?

He's a bit too far back to attempt it, but you find yourself unwilling to do a brain dump anyhow—even the _feel_ of the shard from here makes your skin crawl and the phantom scent of rot waft by your nose.

Just before you and Quinn disappear, do you acknowledge the head of the Protectorate?

You don't react to a legend's presence, merely tossing the other side of the rope to your lawyer and flicking a parting wave as you disappear. Back in Quinn's office, you turn to him and cock your head. "We were being observed by the big apple of the Big Apple's Protectorate office back there."

Quinn takes a second to parse that one. "Legend was there? Are you sure?"

"He was overseeing things from a distance, but I could tell he was around. I'm sure if he really wanted to they'd let him operate the foam sprayers and stuff, though."

Hopping back to the lair you scry Regent, as he's the most likely to be in at the time and find him playing video games on one couch while Grue lays on the other with what looks like a stab wound of some kind. The bigger man is obviously conscious and is talking on the phone to his sister, telling her he'll meet with her tomorrow. Tattletale and Bitch move past at different times, so everyone is accounted for, at least, but they obviously got into a scrape after you saw them last.

Crystal has classes all during the afternoon, but you text her details of the capture last night, and Amy stops by after school to look over the work you had continued on the greenhouse building. That there's a fair amount of kissing and caressing amongst the budding plants is a given, but a welcome one.

You end up sending her back off home with a pat of her butt and go to get ready for this party. You're not sure who decided that 'Thursday is the real beginning of the weekend', but you won't complain about a chance to dance with the S Klub or especially Crystal.

Wasting some time posting on PHO while the girls get ready, you stir up some trouble by pointedly _not_ responding to questions about your 'step-sister'. If you drop small hints, then it's not really your fault….

[X][PHO] Your step-sister is Gallant

[b]►Totally_not_a_wizard [/b] (Verified Cape) (Verified Warlock)

Replied On Feb 24th 2011:

Say it with me now: I can neither confirm nor deny...

...but anyhow, there may be a step-sister. I don't want to prejudice things, especially because there's some of the same issues as with my mother, but I'll say she's always been kinda the soul of chivalry, very knight-in-shining-armor, and getting hit with a Degender Bomb didn't change that.

The party is on campus this time and you find yourself once again with the beautiful ladies of S Klub swirling around Crystal and yourself as you walk. Sarah is missing, and when you softly ask Susan why she tells you that all of the girls of the Nu Tau sorority are confined to the sorority house for the moment, as other instances of, well, 'breaching moral guidelines' were apparently found. The fact that this one triggered someone has the authorities coming down hard on them.

Once inside the party Crystal drags you into a bump-n-grind dance that is really only a layer of clothing away from being public sex. She uses the close contact to lean in and talk into your ear. "Amy told me about what you did with her yesterday."

You are familiar enough with her mind that you can connect to it without eye contact. She's not mad. She's actually so not mad that she is almost _dripping_ with lust from hearing her little cousin talk about how you made her cum from just your fingers and dirty talk in public, and all of the pictures Amy shared with her. There were even pictures that Amy hasn't sent you yet of the brunette using the conjured vibrator Aelfie left under her pillow that Crystal probably wasn't meant to see but did anyhow.

At the start of the next song, Karen is pulled in between the two of you and Crystal mouths 'magic hands' to you as the three of you manage to get into rhythm. You pump a little magic out and run your hands up the redhead's side. Crystal almost has to peel her off of you to let the rest of the girls get a ride as well.

With your girlfriend urging your teasing on, you apply a lightly erotic touch to the rest of the S Klub except for Susan. Susan gets a bit more charge than the rest of them and manages to sneak in a three-way kiss between you before grudgingly letting Savannah slide in.

Crystal and Susan dance to either side of you while you and Savanna share your first dance without Amy in between you. You _may_ have left your magic pushed up a touch too high as you hear a soft 'Oh mah _gawd_' and one of your hands is redirected right to her ass. Her dancing changes to a style that somehow has your hand fastened tight to the crack of her ass and what looks like her hiding her face in your next involves a lot of nibbling on her part.

You and Crystal walk the girls back to their dorm rooms and your girlfriend bids them all adieu starting with Susan, who she hugs and briefly kisses on the lips. The short brunette is passed to you with a _look_, and you repeat Crystal's actions to her approving nod, and the two of you repeat on the rest of the unresisting maidens.

A few moments later you're walking to the stairs and can feel the psychic weight of the stares that follow you as your athletic blonde girlfriend struts next to you in her dress.

The door to the stairwell hasn't even closed completely but Crystal is in your arms. "Can you keep people from coming up or down to find us? I want you _here, now!_"

[X][Crystal] Engage in a spot of exhibitionism

"I can," you murmur against her lips, waving general repellers and silencing spells against the floors above and below you. You have a sneaking suspicion that Crystal wants the girls to hear her, though, so nothing goes on the door.

The two of you wrestle your tongues together as she fishes your cock and balls out of your fly and you pull away and let her win that battle as you drop to yank the minuscule scrap of lace acting as her panties off and into your hand.

Tonight she's not just wearing stockings—there's an entire garter belt and stocking set framing her dripping, needy slit. You run your tongue along it before standing up and swinging her around to face away from you. Nudging her legs apart she settles herself on her heels and wiggles her pert little ass back at you, her skirt bunched up by her hips and her hands on the wall.

"James, _please…_"

Pausing just long enough to make sure you're lined up correctly you _slam_ yourself forward and pause, fully sheathed in your suddenly-quivering girlfriend before pulling back out and jackhammering her at a furious pace. Crystal's cries are shouted to the ceiling and she squeals as you spank her ass.

Leaning over her and bracing yourself on the wall—and incidentally blocking her view of the door with your arm—you grab her hair with your other hand and put your mouth by her ear.

"You're loving this, aren't you?"

"_Yeeeees."_

You sense three of the girls approaching, and a moment later Susan, Soon-Yi, and Karen are staring through the small glass window in the door.

"You want all the girls to see you, don't you? You want all of those girls to watch you get _fucked_ by my _cock_ until you cum your brains out."

Her cries get louder and you growl, "They're watching, you know."

Crystal cums at those words, her moans breaking into sharp little cries as you pull on her hair and nibble at her ear. All of the girls are watching now.

"You were getting them to grind on me earlier… you want me to fuck the hell out of all of them and leave them all a gigantic cummy mess?"

Crystal was already ramping back up to a second orgasm and those words have her almost there. "Yes, maybe, yes, yes yes."

You pitch your voice lower, "I should make you a strap-on that feels like a real dick and we'll fuck them all together. We'll spitroast Susan between us."

That pushes her over the edge and she trembles as you drop her hair and smack her ass again as she locks up, her eyes squeezed shut.

You slow down as she catches her breath for a moment before musing, "Only problem is she doesn't know about the magic. We'd have to fuck _Amy_ instead."

"Oh _Jesus fuck James!_" she jerks and cums suddenly, throwing her head back and staring you in the eyes. You push in her head and see that's treading close to her kink limit, so you decide to back off on that a bit.

"They all just watched you cum," you tell her, and turn her face to you when she tries to look, "Every. Single. One of the girls is watching me rail the hell out of your sweet ass, but they're not seeing nearly enough." You pull the top of her dress down and flick at her diamond-hard nipples. "Now they're going to watch me _breed_ you."

You charge a little magic to your cock and ramp up the tempo as much as you can and her legs start trembling. "Don't you collapse on me, if your legs give out I'm picking you up and turning you to face the door. Now," you swat her ass as you start to fire thick ropes inside her, "_cum!_"

Even with you slapping a hand over her mouth a the last second, her cry of "Fuck, James, _yes!_" is loud enough to echo. Her hands slip off the wall and you bend down to catch her, slide your elbows into her knees and with a featherlight charm pull her back against your chest as you turn both of you towards the window. The S Klub has a perfect shot of your balls contracting as you cum inside her, Crystal's head laying against your shoulder as she pants harshly and moans.

After that mindbending orgasm, Crystal's a bit out of it so you levitate her off your cock and pull a handkerchief from your pocket to clean yourself, which you continue to do in full view of the window. Crystal you levitate behind you so it looks like she's flying herself.

The entire S Klub has given up on subtlety and is blatantly staring. Susan looks at you hungrily while Karen's eyes are glazed over. Sierra is swallowing repeatedly and Savannah keeps licking her lips. Soon-Yi is staring unblinkingly at your cock and trembling slightly. As one of the smallest of the girls—possibly tied with Susan—it might be more than she's comfortable with contemplating. Every single one of the girls is screaming their arousal in their minds, each with an array of kinks. You are the star of five sets of fantasies from Susan kneeling and orally servicing you and Crystal, tender missionary sex with Soon-Yi, or Savannah's contemplation of you fucking her ass while she eats Crystal out.

You flex your cock and watch the array of shrieks and sighs on the other side of the door with a smile before tucking yourself back into your pants. Their lusty gazes travel up to your face, where you try to look them each in the eye before blowing a kiss, collecting your blissed-out girlfriend into your arms and heading down the stairs.

Crystal's recovered a bit by the time you apparate home. Stripping her dress and lingerie off of her the two of you swap slow, tender kisses. "So that goes in the 'yes' column?"

Gloriously nude except for her heels, your girlfriend strips you bare and hops up to wrap her legs around your waist. "Yes, for small groups, or maybe with a _chance_ of getting caught. No sex on the Boardwalk."

"Sex on the Boardwalk while _invisible_?"

"Oh. Huh… I'll have to think about that one." Her mind is happy and content, blasting loving thoughts as you start to walk towards the bathroom. _Being Lady Peverell would totally be worth it. I think love him._

Friday after a jog with Taylor you 'happen' to jog over near the local Catholic school. Immaculata High and its surroundings are… very white. Even the few stores open this early are white-washed. There's a French cafe, the woman with the hand-cart selling coffee and donuts is a particularly light-skinned Latina… It takes a bit, but you do see subtle signs of Empire tags. They're in alleyways just far enough back that you can't see them easily from the street, or a flag or sticker in an upstairs window of a building.

It's not really overt—passing by the school itself there's a pretty even mix of races, honestly—but this area at the edge of Captain's Hill is likely an incubator for Empire sentiment.

Your only text from Templeton says 'Tue or Wed, l8r is g8r', so hopefully there's a light at the end of that Coil-ed tunnel.

Later in the day you find an abandoned lot in the Commercial District with plenty of space around it to try out fiendfyre. You also raise earthen barriers in the hope that if things go south the magical flame would be channeled away from the city.

With a portkey strapped to your left wrist, you aim at one of the targets you've set up and cast.

_Rage_ hits you as the cursed fire rockets out of your wand. Hippogryffs and basilisks form and devour all of the targets as the mental backlash screams in your head. _Burn destroy KILL._

You had already pulled up your mental defenses, but you reinforce them and reach out and crush the malevolent desires within the flames and enforce your will upon them. It only takes a split second, but even still the fire has crept closer to you, the asphalt around you beginning to smoke.

Cutting power to the spell, you cast the counter-charm and the fire is gone, causing a loud crack as the air rushes in. Even with that short of a exposure to the fiendfyre your face feels burt and your skin is tight, and your wand hand feels like you held it right next to a blast furnace.

You heal yourself before fixing some of the damage and cast the curse once more. Now that you know what to expect you immediately force obedience upon the dark magic, turning it from a barely-controlled torrent into a writhing snake of flame. It is very much like being in control of a flamethrower, knowing that even a momentary lapse could cause your death.

Smothering the flames again you hide any traces of your presence and apparate to your lair to heal and rest.

You end the day…

[X][Friday] You, Crystal, and Taylor go out to be seen in public with the girl

Friday evening you find yourself alone in the front seat of Crystal's car while she and Taylor chat in the back. You'd managed to find a little concert at one of the smaller museums going on late afternoon/early eveningish so you can go to that and still have plenty of time to stroll on the Boardwalk. Your girlfriend wanted plenty of chances for people to get pictures of the high-school girl and her being friendly.

The concert itself is pretty interesting, it's a history of jazz that you sit back and enjoy, bracketing Taylor between you. Afterwards you stroll the Boardwalk, Crystal walking arm-in-arm with the dark-haired girl while you orbit around them holding doors and keeping up conversation.

When you finally settle down to eat you feel a buzz in your mental map that draws your attention—Sophia and Emma are walking vaguely in your direction with another, older, girl. They haven't seen you yet, so you lean over and nudge Crystal. "Hey, I saw someone give Taylor the stink-eye, I wonder if it's one of the people giving her a hard time at school?"

Cutting her eyes over to you, Crystal frowns, "And you have an idea?"

"Yeah, go hover out of sight and let's see if they come over without a cape around."

When Crystal excuses herself you continue the conversational thread with Taylor as you reach out and poke Emma and Sophia's brains _just_ enough to draw their attention your way.

Like dumbass sharks who think they smell blood in the water, the two girls plus their older hanger-on are coincidentally standing near your table shortly thereafter.

"Oh my God Sophia, did you hear about how Taylor is just whoring herself out to older guys?"

The black girl snorts. "It's probably because she's all wrinkled like an old woman anyway. No one our age wants her."

Taylor doesn't even turn to face the bullies, just flinches and pulls in to herself. You, however, look up at the girls and the somewhat embarrassed woman with them. "Those sound like completely made-up, bullshit rumors that only small children would believe. Don't you agree, Crystal?"

From her position flying behind the group with her phone recording and looking _pissed_, Laserdream seems to agree vehemently. "Hello Anne. Care to introduce the bitches talking shit?"

Anne Barnes sees the phone and turns her head away. "No, they can handle themselves."

Emma and Sophia don't look nearly as confident when all of the attention is turned on them. You decide to help your girlfriend out. "The ginger looks related to the other girl. Sister?"

"Oh, _hello_ Emma. I see you're taller than the last time I met you, but you haven't actually _grown up_ any. Still a bitchy little brat." Her eyes flick to the girl standing next to her. "You don't _look_ familiar, but I'd swear I've heard you complain about shit before." Turning to the embarrassed older Barnes sister she leans forward a bit. "Take the bitches and leave. I'll be giving my aunt copies of this. Your father still hasn't made junior partner, now has he?"

Not two minutes later Taylor is once again between the two of you and Crystal is rubbing the girl's back. The two women are in the middle of what seems to be a pretty heavy conversation so you instead turn your attention outward and glower at anyone looking their way.

The rest of the evening ends up being cut short as you drop both ladies off at Taylor's house. Crystal catches you up on things when she's laying in bed with you later that night.

"The Barnes bitches are both self-important twats who liked talking about how their daddy was a lawyer. When dealing with other lawyers' kids. I remember Vicky complaining about Emma for _years_ when she had to deal with her at parties and stuff." She snuggles into you and relaxes a bit. "I have my suspicions about the other girl—"

"She's a cape, in other words, since you're being evasive."

Crystal zips your lips with her fingers and then kisses you. "I didn't say anything. D'you think Warlock could magic up some protection for her house, though?"

[X][Taylor] Put up intruder wards at her house

[X][Taylor] Have Aelfie watch Taylor


	40. Sat, Feb 26

A text to Amy has her over to the apartment to eat breakfast with you and Crystal in the morning.

"So, I've looked over the defense ritual, and I'm willing to do it with you two assuming you can memorize the chants and aren't going to object to the bloodletting."

Amy chews a pancake. "And the nudity?"

"And the nudity. I can use magic to place guides for the runes, but they're going to be placed all along the torso, front and back. You can wear the robe and part it slightly while Crystal or I paint them on, but there's going to be a fair amount of skin showing."

Flicking her eyes over to Crystal then you, Amy sits back and sips her coffee. "Alright. What's first?"

You hand over copies of the steps of the personal cleansing, the _totemic enhancement_ ritual, and actual and phonetic versions of the chants. Below are sketches of the rune clusters, most of which will be along the upper chest and back, down the sides of the body, and along the spine and sternum. You give both girls some additional paper, ink, and brushes. "Practice those runes. We'll run over the chant after you get some drawing practice, and continue practicing during the day.

"Aelfie has already picked up the reagents we need, as this ritual doesn't need us to verify the items resonate with our personal magic." You wrinkle your nose at the coffee smell wafting from both women's mugs and sip your tea. "I'd like to do the ritual in the evening 'cause it's probably going to wipe us out, so we can sleep it off."

Amy frowns, "Will Aelfie take me back to the house?"

You shrug, "I figured we'd all just pass out on the bed."

The little brunette suddenly looks wolfish. "I see."

The girls continue to practice while you pop over to the lair to make sure all of the other items are in place. While you're there you talk to Aelfie about the ritual.

"Aelfgifu, would you like to participate in the ritual as well?"

The house-elf claps and pops up to the table to look at you. "Yes, Lord Peverell, thank yous. You don't worry about seeing me during the ritual. Ælfgifu be invisible and helping yous ritual. Since yous give permission, Ælfgifu gets," she weaves her long-fingered hands together, "uh, a shadow copy of yous ritual. I get enough stuff for six peoples just in case, so I use one set too."

You take the small elf's hands and smile at her. "Good. I'll try to keep you informed of any rituals we do, so if you want to join in, just let me know. You're _always_ welcome to join."

Aelfie blushes at you and snatches her hands back in embarrassment. "Lord Peverell too kind. I be tracking rude girl for you most of the rest of the day, find you a memory-bowl by tomorrow." She curtseys and pops away and you gather some reference materials on runes and pop back to do some bloodletting on the girls.

It's nice not having to hide your magic, so you kick back and do some catching up on Runes. The book you picked out this time does have an expanded syllabary, but also includes some examples of very simple runic casting—sketching a rune associated with in the air before casting an _incendo_ will turn the spell from a small stream to a powerful gout of flame.

…of course, 'sketching a rune in the air' isn't explained there, it's like it's assumed that everyone knows how to do that…

You find information about it later in the book and try it yourself. It forces you to pull out your wand for the first time in quite a while for something unrelated to healing. You manage to write a 'sun' rune in the air after a try or two and touch your wand to it to cast a _lumos_.

After everyone recovers their sight (and Amy checks to make sure you didn't cause permanent damage), you decide to just read a bit more and practice _later._ You do fill in a few runes you were unaware of, and that will help with adding logic to your enchantments—you can now have enchantments fire off of people being hurt, and even add ephemeral concepts like 'is threatening you with violence in a way that actually constitutes a real threat to you'. Which is a _single rune_, albeit one that has about thirty strokes to it.

Amy heads off to get her homework done and be seen by Photon Mom so as to keep the heat off of you, while you invite your Lady out for an on-campus picnic. Aelfie's picked up some newer recipes from you, so you reap the fruits of your house-elf's labor while you recline on a ridiculously-cliche checkered cloth.

You end up leaning against a tree with Crystal cuddled against your chest as you feed each other little bites of food and probably cause tooth-rotting jealousy in anyone within sight. If only they could hear what you're saying…

"So I think that whoever's writing 'Brocton Bay Zeta: World's Conquest' has decided to run with this 'you are Clockblocker's child' thing. They totally stole the gender-reversing stuff, and put up a series of votes. A whole bunch of guys are now girls and once again Clocky's 'broken' a bunch of them with his dick."

You look down your nose at your girlfriend—like literally, since her head is on your chest. "I can't believe you read that smut. Instead, you should be reading '_Brigid's_' newest story on capefixxx," you say in your finest Bela Lugosi accent.

"Are you a vampire?"

"I am indeed a vampire."

"And after you suck her blood…."

You flex your shaft, Crystal having worked it out of your pants earlier. It's under a concealing charm and rubbing along her silken panties. "I fill her back up with other fluids."

Your girlfriend chuckles before leaning over so she can turn her head and look in your eyes. "James?"

"Hrm?" you ask around a mouthful of sandwich.

"When are you gonna stop teasing and fuck Amy?"

"Crys… look, I don't want to get into conversations about past relationships or anything, but bear with me here—did you fuck your first boyfriend?"

"Uh, no. Didn't even kiss him."

"And I'm Pan-pan's _first_ boyfriend. You said yourself you thought she was gay for a while. Hell, it sounds like she never dated at all, so who knows if she even snuck a kiss with a girl at any point." You scrub your knuckles along your scruffy chin, "she and I are _already_ screaming along at warp speed, I'm trying to keep her from thinking she wants what we already have and realizing she didn't want to go this fast when it's six inches too late."

Crystal sighs and uses that scruff on your cheek to scratch the end of her nose. "Screw your logic, dude." A naughty little smile creeps over her face. "If she decides anything about going too fast it'll be after that fat first inch and she realizes why I had her make adjustments." Her eyes lose focus as something comes to her. "Wait, wait, wait, you can change the size of things, right? Can you—"

"Yes," you preempt what she's about to ask without needed a lick of legilimency, "I can make it bigger temporarily. If you're thinking about becoming a size queen you'll do it only with Amy there monitoring and adjusting as needed."

_That_ mental image has her dripping—you can feel the slick slide of her panties change as you flex against them.

"To go back to the vampire thing, she still has an obsession with buttsex for some reason, so one of the chapters has me trapping her in a coffin with me as I slide my 'vampiric pole' into her 'dirty hole', all while I bite her neck," of which you do the latter to Crystal to her groaning delight, "and feed while I fuck her."

With the way she's wiggling, you have a sneaking suspicion the two of you'll be making a stop back at the lair before you head off to heal with Amy this afternoon. "Not today, but we're gonna do _that_ soon."

"Oh really?"

"Uh-huh. Momma gets it all first before one of those other girls gets to play."

You've kinda given up trying to understand Crystal's desire for you to fuck other girls. You can _literally read her mind_ and it doesn't make sense sometimes, but it gets her hot. "I assume that one of the Sklub,—"she giggles at you slurring the name together, "—has an anal fetish?"

"Savannah mainly, but Sierra made a comment about it too. Savanna though, she apparently went right from oral to butt stuff, 'cause of religion."

"Ah, the 'ol 'Poophole Loo—" you stop as Crystal smacks your arm, giggling madly.

"Shut up! I almost died when Karen called it that." She cuddles back against you and looks at the time. "We'll have to pack up soon, but I'm glad we decided to spend a little time catching up." You kiss the top of her head and she beams up at you. "I love y—spendingtimelikethiswithyou!"

[X][Crystal] "I love you too, Crys."

You lock eyes with her and let the moment stretch out a bit as you smile. Crystal has turned bright pink but refuses to look away.

"I love you too, Crys."

Crystal's face scrunches up as she simultaneously beams and leaks a few happy tears from her eyes. Her hands caress the sides of your face and pulls you gently down to kiss her as you rub her back and run a hand through her hair.

Pulling back and leaning her forehead against you she gives a little hiccup-sigh as her hands move down to touch your chest, her right hand over your heart. "I thought it might just be me."

"Oh love," you sigh, and smile at the thrill that you can feel run through her, "what did Aelfie call you?"

"Lady Peverell…"

"And I never had an objection to her saying it. I was just bothered that she was going to spill the secret too soon. You are _my Lady._"

Ghosting her lips against yours, Crystal's mind is projecting her love and desire to you. "James, take me home to bed and make love to me."

Before you could think to speak the words, you feel Aelfie pop in and establish an illusion of you still cuddling by the tree and you apparate out with your lover in your arms.

In the early afternoon, you and your shortstack girlfriend rumble on the motorcycle over to Medhall Medical Center to do some healing. You'd voiced some suspicions about the company to Quinn Calle, and the lawyer was able to find out that the hospital was largely independent, having changed the name primarily because of donations from Medhall—in other words it was good press they could use if the Nazi thing ever came to light.

In any case, Panacea didn't come to this hospital as often, so instead of the assembly-line of Brockton General, you were back to walking from room to room. The two of you split sides of hallways as you walked down, at least until you heard her voice raised.

"—the hell are you doing here, Dennis?"

Quickly finishing up the healing you were doing you sweep down to the room your girlfriend is ranting in. She doesn't even look up as you enter, still berating a red-haired boy.

"Seriously, you _know_ I heal. We sit at the same table at lunch, does it just _slip your mind_ every time?" Looking down at the case notes she freezes a moment before turning to the woman sitting by the kid's bedside. "Is your husband in this hospital as well?"

"Yes, he's on the sixth floo-" She's bustled off by the robe-clad healer, who slaps the chart into your chest with a growled 'fix him.'

"Oooookay," you drawl, looking at the chart. "Dennis McKenna, 17 years old… you're just here to rest after doing Peripheral Blood Stem Cell donation." You look up at the teenager who's staring back at you somewhat suspiciously. Pushing into his head a bit you realize that your guess was correct and this is, indeed, Clockblocker. "So lemme fix the slight tiredness or whatever," which you do with a wave of the wand, "…and I guess while we wait I can change your hair color for you? Can't do much about being a soulless ginger, but eh."

El Blocko Clocko manages to look unamusedly amused. "Really? A ginger joke?"

You roll your hand up in a wrist-shrug. "Amy apparently knows you but I have no context with you, so I gotta take what jokes I can get. Want a neck tattoo or something?"

A bit further into his head you uncover the major discovery that he has commissioned and collaborated with _Specific Protagonist_ to write that crazy-ass fanfic that has him fucking (literally or figuratively) all of Brockton Bay. No wonder it involves improbable sex. In fact, S_P has been angling to meet her co-writer recently. What a small, creepy-ass world.

Dennis touches his neck. "Nah… wait, can you make like a temporary paint one?"

Amy and Dennis' parents don't show back up for almost twenty minutes, but when they come through the door the boy launches himself at his glowing-with-health father. Amy leans into your side as the family hug and cry happy tears. It really takes a couple of minutes for the screaming to start.

"Is that a TATTOO?! Dennis!" The woman turns on you and looks more fierce than any cape you've seen, pointing a finger of doom. "You!"

"It's paint."

The finger swings back to Dennis.

Amy hits you with a soft elbow and you crumple dramatically into a heap, waving a hand and erasing the neck-and-sleeve tattoo you had stuck on the secret cape.

After that bit of theater, you finish up healing and head back to the lair where you find that Aelfie has uncovered a very nice, pretty large pensieve that Crystal is poking at. You'd judge it large enough for like a half-dozen people to use it at once. You do have time to test it out…..

[X][Pensieve] Your exhibitionism on Thursday

As soon as the two of you apparate in Crystal turns from where she's poking at the pensieve and kisses you soundly. "Where's the rest of the possessed dinner service?"

"It's the pensieve I mentioned. Want me to put a memory in and we can try it out?"

Flicking her eyes over to Amy, she says "How about Thursday, so Amy gets a chance to experience the dance too?"

You think you're gonna give her more than the dance, but it's not a bad idea. "Sure, let me just concentrate for a moment." You encapsulate the dance and your own little afterparty into a… packet that you pull out with your wand before stirring it into the roiling mists inside the bowl.

"Alright, lean in and once you make contact with the mist you should get sucked in. Things should be from a third-party perspective." You go first and just as you said you find yourself watching Karen about to be made the meat of a rhythmic sandwich when Crystal and Amy appear.

"Holy fuck, you like completely disappeared James!" your girlfriend exclaims, then grins as you sidle up behind Amy and start moving her to the music. "Wow, I was fucking _on point._"

You chuckle. "Of course you were dear, you're always beautiful." You slide your hands under Amy's shirt as she starts to move against you. "The last time we were dancing you had my coat on and I couldn't _grind_ you like this."

Crystal moves behind herself and tries to latch on and smack her own ass but only manages to fall through the threesome to your and Amy's laughter. "Awww…"

After sharing a dance together, you and Amy join Crystal in getting in close and watching the action. When she sees the threesome kiss with Susan she licks her own lips and seems focused on Crystal's smirk.

You pay better attention to Soon-Yi's dance. She had come after Savannah and seemed simultaneously embarrassed and super eager to hold herself against you. Being better able to see where she's buried her head into your chest you see that she's blushing to the tips of her ears as she haltingly grinds against you.

Rather than sit through the walk back and all of that you try fast-forwarding, managing to get the timing to just as you're walking away from throughly kissing the S Klub.

Crystal whirls around and stares wide-eyed. "Are you really?"

"D'you want me to stop?"

"Uh…" she turns and stares as she pops your cock out and you kneel down to strip her panties off. "Oh fuck we're hot."

Amy is trembling and drifting closer to the phantom images of you and her cousin. Her eyes jump between your bobbing length and Crystal's wet, glistening slit. You slide behind her and wrap an arm around her to brace as she flinches violently when you stuff Crystal full not a foot away. "Baby, you know Crystal can take it like that. I'm taking it slow with you—"

"Oh my _fucking_ god, they _were_ watching!"

You chuckle as Amy looks over to see her cousin standing in front of the little window like it would stop what had actually happened two days ago.

Shifting Amy closer, you hear your line of 'We'll spitroast Susan between us' and she snakes a hand down to clench between her thighs. You send her a magical shock as the next line—the one about spitroasting _her_—coaxes a startled little orgasm out of her. Her wide eyes turn to you as Crystal, floating partially through the door crows, "I knew it, Susan's totally getting off!"

Amy doesn't focus on you for long—or at least on the current you—she finds herself front-and-center as you turn with Crystal in your arms and cum inside her. The brunette drops to her knees and stares at your balls as they contract, her mouth drifting open as you float Crystal away and your glistening cock, wet with her juices, bobs in front of her.

Gathering your younger girlfriend from her daze you carry her over to where Crystal is spying on the S Klub. Savannah and Sierra have blatantly slid hands down their pants, while Karen has a hand on her chest and is strumming a stiff nipple.

Poking Crystal where she's talking shit into unhearing ears, you find yourselves back in the real world with two ladies with _very_ flushed faces. Putting a hand on their shoulders you hum thoughtfully. "Well, that's gotten the magic pumping. Keep it like this and the ritual will be a breeze."

After a light dinner, you go over the runes and chant with both ladies again. Both have applied themselves with vigor and are spot-on with their pronunciations and sketching. The three of you share chaste kisses and a three-way hug before you and Crystal strip bare with little fanfare. Amy undresses slower and seems a bit embarrassed, but at the end holds her head high and looks both of you in the eyes. As much as you like to run both your eyes and your hands over her beautiful body, this isn't the time or place, so with a nod you lead both ladies into the ritual circle and open yourself to the magics contained within. With its guidance you shift the three of you around a bit—you're still in a rough triangle, but facing west this time.

You feel Aelfgifu enter the circle as well, and as she does the magic shifts slightly. Her presence is a soft harmony underlying yours, buoying and being buoyed in turn.

The three of you turn from your separate spaces and face the center, where water and honey have been set, and meet each other there. Joining hands with your fellow participants you all lower your heads and breathe before throwing them back as you pull on their magic and your own. This time it is less of a plea and more of a command.

_Cemjō, soitos, qe pāsmi mene weltis!" _

Come, magic, and heed my will!

The individual cleansing is largely similar to the general one, but each of you in turn speaks the words and gathers a bit of water and honey on your fingers before pricking the other to draw the blood. Aelfgifu is beside and behind you, adding a drop of her blood to yours and taking a drop of your own lifeblood.

The three of you and the ritual materials you will use are encased in your own cocoons of cleansing magic as the power sweeps over you. Crystal's is the same crimson of her powers, while Amy's is a deep, fern green.

With the cleansing done, each of you retreats to your corners to lay out your gemstones and turtle shells before meeting once more in the middle to paint runes. The work is long and tedious, even with magic being used to mark out the exact patterns required so that it ends up being very paint-by-numbers. Once you are all painted and you have all verified that everything looks correct you press the tips of your fingers against the ladies' and move back to your individual spaces.

Pulling on the magic that flows through the ritual space you start the chant, Crystal, Amy, and Aelfgifu's voices echoing yours.

"_Ghwerā ainō agros egō ghawō dōme juwes galnos._"

Beast of the land, I call upon your power

"_Bhoudhejō entós me dhoboskos ainō pḷtáwijā._"

Awaken within me the solidity of the earth

"_Dherghō me komtrōd oljoi elne moghō skodhos me_."

Strengthen me against all that can harm me

"_Dídōmi ana me juwes dōnom._"

Bestow upon me your blessing

Repeating the words over and over you feel _something_ pulling from the simple shell into you, solidifying, hardening, and making yourself strong against all that would hurt you. You don't know how long it lasts, but you drink from the power until you have taken all it has to give before bowing your head once more and intoning the ritual closing.

"_Bhkirkos bhewmi ōsmi mō ghawōdskei. Soitos, egō ledō juwes, ṛskai qe esmi áiwi aiwós!_"

The circle is open but unbroken. Magic, I release you, go and be always eternal.

You are immediately hit by a wave of exhaustion and almost sink to your knees. Aelfgifu is at your side and looks frustrated at you. "You give more magic than you need, master! You need practice!"

Amy and Crystal are by your side and while they also look tired, they are not nearly as bad off as you feel. Both of them look panicked for a moment before Aelfie lets them know that you're fine, just tired, and will be back to normal in the morning. The three of you are already clear of the runic markings, but a snap from your house-elf has all three of you clean as your women guide you to the bed where you collapse gratefully. Crystal rolls you into the center of the bed on your back and kisses you softly before passing you off to Amy.

Thoroughly kissed, you smile at your ladies as they lay on your chest and speak softly as you tumble into a deep, content sleep.

[X][Wakeup] You and Amy explore oral sex


	41. Sunday, Feb 27

When you awaken you—for the first time you can remember—are the little spoon. Crystal has turned over onto her stomach in front of you and her hands are twitching, a sign you've found of her dozing lightly.

The hands of the girl behind you are exploring their way down your chest, not making any bones about heading directly for your cock. You relax and enjoy the feel of her breasts pressed onto your back as a hand circles the base of your shaft. You let her play for a minute or so before rolling over, swinging an arm out and scooping it under her head.

Amy blushes as you hit the both of you with breath-freshening charms and kiss her good morning. "Keep going if you want to, baby." Her eyes flick over to Crystal and you nod. "We talked, and I said I wanted to take it slow. That _does_ include feeling new things out, even if Crys is around."

"Don't think I didn't catch that pun," she says, but her hand flips your cock up to lay against your belly and runs her fingers over it as it begins to swell. "You didn't have an erection during the ritual?"

"No, I figured it'd be distracting. I used a mental trick to kinda… divorce my lustful feelings from actually being acted on?" You wiggle your fingers to show it's magic. "It's difficult to explain directly."

After kissing you again, Amy sits up so she can use both hands, one drifting down to cup your balls while the other pulls your shaft upright and gives it a couple of test strokes.

You give a couple of strokes of your own to the girl's back. "Ames? Fair warning, you can play with my cock all you want, but at some point I'm eating your pretty little pussy until you scream."

Amy goes red and one hand flies to where her choker would normally be and she looks like she's about to panic. You snag her hand and sit up, leaning over to kiss her. "Baby, it's not all master-mistress stuff. You're Amy, I'm James, and we're just being lovey-dovey and exploring." You kiss her nose and lay back down, "_Later_, when you're comfortable with things your hands will be bound behind you as I force my cock all the way down your throat until you cry black tears."

There's a snort from your other side and Amy collapses to the bed and hides her face against your side. "How the hell can you just come up with randomly perverse things like that?" Crystal asks, mostly of the bed since her face is mashed in it.

"Y'all bring out the best in me, I suppose."

You get poked in the side from both directions for that, and Crystal does her slithery snake impression again before propping her chin on you. "C'mon Ames… either you play with his dick or I will."

When Amy looks up you do check to make sure she's feeling okay about this, but she is. Her main thoughts are wonder that something like this could happen, and a quickly-growing lust. You can't find it in you to be surprised when, after looking at her blonde cousin's face for a moment, Amy locks her eyes on Crystal before moving forward and mouthing kisses against the side of your shaft.

Crystal gives a soft moan and her legs shift against each other. Her hand reaches out and brushes Amy's hair behind her ear so you can both see better. "Fuck."

Amy has to stop kissing because her lips are turned up in a huge smile, so she nuzzles her face against your shaft instead, sliding up to the tip and turning her head to take it in her mouth, blocking your view.

"You little—" Crystal laughs, lifting off the bed and sliding down to look at what Amy's doing. "Hah, yeah, bigger than you thought, huh?"

"Mrmph."

No matter how big of a problem Amy's having, her tongue is having no issues at all swirling around your head for a bit before taking a tiny bit more into her mouth.

Two more of those 'tiny bit mores' and you're clutching the sheets and gritting your teeth from the tease of it. In an attempt to distract yourself Amy is levitated—with a squeak that you feel echo down your length—and settled over your head where you dive in with passion.

You only get one orgasm out of her—she must really be concentrating—before you sneak a finger up to her little rosebud and cast a spell you had found in the book Aelfie had left you that cleans her out safely and lubes her. _That_ gets a noise and another inch, but you do your best to ignore that as you continue to drink deeply of her and slowly slide your finger around her little pink pucker.

That sets off a bunch of noises down from the other end of the bed. Crystal's voice catches your ear, "What're you stopping for, James' probably dying up there."

Amy's mouth pops off your cock. "Crissy, he's… he's fingering my _ass_," she whisper-shouts.

You're unsurprised when your lover's face peeks over Amy's back a second later at you. You do manage a cheeky wink and Crystal manages—barely—to keep from giggling. Breaching Amy's hole with the barest tip of your finger draws a gasp and Crystal's attention that way for a moment and you feel Amy's head get pushed down a bit. "No, little missy, you please our man. I'm inspecting his work now."

The blonde watches as you wiggle your finger deeper drawing moans that are quickly stifled by your cock. "Are you using magic?" You push into her head and she's quickly working her way past objections like 'familial relations' and focusing much more on 'looks hot with a mouth full of cock."

Placing your tongue right on Amy's clit you shake your head vigorously.

There's a wicked smirk on her face. "Well?"

A trickle of magic later and Amy is sitting on your face and screaming your name to the ceiling, her legs shaking around you. Crystal piles on with a spank to Amy's ass that adds spice if the timbre change of her voice can be believed.

Winking back at you, Crystal disappears back over in Amy's direction and your cock is swiftly engulfed in an eager mouth. You lay back and continue your anal play lazily, turning your head to kiss and nibble at your mistress' pale thighs.

It quickly becomes apparent that Crystal has taken her cousin in hand—literally, as one hand grabs the parts of your shaft that are uncovered, and you hear whispered bits of conversation as Amy picks up the pace.

"That's it, don't try to go deep, just take what you can," Crystal croons, "He's your master, right? So it's your job to make him cum." You can hear wet noises and can vaguely feel that Crystal is fingering herself madly.

The cousins' teamwork has done a number on you, and you feel the pull at the base of your cock that you're going to cum, and you warn them with a moan of your own.

Amy pulls off of you for just a moment to plead, "In my mouth, _master_," before reapplying herself with vigor.

Shortly after that you cum between Amy's pouty lips. Your magically-charged seed catapults the healer—who has always been so sensitive to your magic—into a huge orgasm of her own as she squirts and squeals and bucks without ever dislodging you from her mouth.

Crystal moves her hand away and licks at the spilled cum running down your shaft and climaxes as well from the charged cum. The three of you hold each other lovingly as you all peak together before Amy rolls off to the side, giggling madly.

You sit up and watch Amy pull Crystal to her and the two cousins share a tender, cum-smeared kiss before Amy rolls more completely onto her back and wiggles in excitement. A touch of her mind tells you that as bad as your clothes were for her, she is _literally_ cum-drunk at the moment.

Cuddling the little healer between you, you and Crystal share your own kiss and talk about what you're going to do today.

You and Crystal are discussing breakfast while Amy is rubbing her face into Crystal's cleavage when something occurs to you. "Crys? We didn't jog with Taylor."

Her eyes go wide and she flies off the bed. "Ah shit!" Grabbing her phone she looks at the time and does some mental calculations. "She's either done or about to be. Dammit."

Amy has exchanged her face-rubbing for rubbing her butt back on your cock. "So invite her to breakfast with us?"

Crystal's look is droll as she holds up her phone. "Oh hi Tay! Wanna come over to my boyfriend's secret lair and sit around naked with us?"

Ignoring the giggles from the magic-drunk girl in your arms you roll your eyes at your girlfriend. "How about 'Sorry Taylor, we had a late night, want to come over to James' for a late breakfast?'"

"That's not nearly as fun, dear."

"I'm aware, dear."

The two of you smile at each other and Crystal texts Taylor while you wrestle with a very catlike Amy. Not just in the cuddle-and-nuzzle sense, but in the 'flows like liquid if she doesn't want to be moved' sense. You had been trying to get her to sit up with you but instead end up with her draped across your lap with you scratching her back.

Crystal comes back in, "So we're doing brunch in an hour and a half. We'll need to do shifts on showers."

"Or I just make one. It'll only take a few minutes." You think about things for a second and frown. "I should probably find an actual house so I can have a shower big enough for…" you look down and over at the girls, "…things."

"Oh yes, _things_." Crystal says, archly. "Grab the cuddlebug and let's get moving." She leans against one of the bedposts as you roll Amy over and pick her up. "Y'know, dad's a real estate agent, I wonder—"

She's cut off as you flop over and laugh, the sound muffled into raspberries by Amy's belly, which sets _her_ off too.

"Neil is a real estate agent?"

"…yes?"

"How does he fit in the houses? Does he have to pay if he breaks doors?"

Crystal pulls you to your feet and pokes you as you float Amy along with you instead. "Well, _normally_ he does commercial stuff. Other people at the agency do regular houses."

You sigh. "That isn't nearly as funny, you know."

With that sexy little twist of her lips she does sometimes, Crystal bumps your hips. "You'll live."

With five minutes work you slap together a large glass-walled stall with a warm rain shower pouring down and the three of you clean off. Amy's coming down from her previously addled state a bit, but is still very affectionate as you and Crystal scrub her down while she's sandwiched in between you.

Soon enough you're all dried off via magic and Crystal is putting on another amazing lingerie set acquired via Aelfie when Amy corners you with her choker, cuffs, and plug in hand.

"I know I had to take all this off because of the ritual, and that's fine, but… I want a little ritual of our own with you putting it back on me."

A touch of her mind tells you that the act of you 'collaring' her, as well as the further work with the cuffs just feels _right_ to her. The feeling of you being in control—not enough to stifle her, but enough to know that you are there as a source of strength to pull on—makes her feel, paradoxically, freer.

You conjure a silver platter to place her jewelry on and a soft cushion at your feet. Crystal has stopped in the background in her underwear to watch, but Amy only has eyes for you. "Kneel."

The brunette lowers herself onto the pillow, her face pointing to the floor and her hands clasped in front of her. You step up and place a hand under her chin. "Hands behind your back, pet."

Her eyes flick up to meet you and back down as you run a hand through her hair. "My dear, you should sit like this because I want to see you. You are my _mistress_; you are a beautiful work of art and I want to see every part of you, including those eyes of yours." You smile at her flush as you reach out and snag the choker from the platter and run it through your hands. "I'll be updating the enchantments on this and adding a few failsafes, including a portkey to here if you are knocked unconscious or are seriously wounded; the wards will alert Aelfie and I in that case. Are there any changes you would want?"

Your mistress smiles up at you. "Please change the metal to silver, master."

"Platinum, I would think." With a tap of your wand you do, then walk slowly around her to fasten it from the back. "Mine."

"_Yours_," she sighs happily.

The bracelet cuffs, already being platinum, go on immediately after and you pause, summoning another pair to your hand. "Would you prefer a matched set, my dear?" you ask, and chuckle at the nod. "I'll set a voice activation to make them invisible and phase through if you're wearing stockings; no reason to mess up a lovely view like that otherwise."

Levitating her up to chest-height you fasten them on and change the symbol to yours, then use them to manipulate her into a strappado position. Placing a hand on her ass, you're reaching out for the plug when Crystal finally speaks up.

"I'd… like to try a plug myself if you can make a copy."

You can feel Amy quiver at the reminder that someone else is watching her and who, exactly, it is. You duplicate the plug and press the original to your mistress' delicate hole after casting a lube spell. Gentle pressure has her submit to you until the base is snugly nestled between her cheeks. You tap the jewel displaying your symbol with a finger and smile at the sensual gasp.

Lowering Amy back down she folds back into kneeling at your feet as you pick up the copied plug and look between your mistress and your Lady. "Amy my dear, since you have the most experience and a complementary power, perhaps you should be the one to plug Crystal."

You raise the healer and the two of you stalk over to your girlfriend and assist her to bend over the bed. While you place kisses along her back Amy lowers her cousin's panties and, placing her hands on each cheek and spreading them apart.

"First is cleaning."

You reach over and run your finger around in a circle while you cast a special cleansing spell from your erotic spellbook.

"Then lubrication…"

Conjuring it in a thin stream, you let it trail down the cleft of her ass. Amy jumps to assist by slowly massaging the liquid into Crystal's little sphincter, using gentle pressure until one of her fingers slips inside, carrying more lube with it.

Crystal is breathing heavily and you can smell her heady arousal in the air. Amy presses a second finger in and you hand her the plug. Withdrawing her fingers she replaces it with the cool metal of the plug and presses a kiss to the top of a stocking while she feeds it steadily into Crystal's ass.

Once the plug is fully inserted you vanish the extra lube and beckon Amy to stand and lay on the bed next to the blonde. "Let's make sure things still work as they should. _Vibrit_."

Twinned moans bring a smile to your face and you roll your ladies together into an embrace, kiss their heads, and leave them with their plugs slowly ramping up intensity of both vibration and thrusting while you head back to your apartment to get started on brunch.

You text Taylor to get her opinions on pancakes versus waffles (waffles), and get started on cooking. Aelfie pops in to give you the stink-eye, but can't find fault with your unassailable logic of 'Taylor was told I was cooking, so I'm cooking.'

The ladies show up close to half an hour later all smiles, and you find that the presence of a plug adds a certain something to both of their gaits that makes it hard not to stare when they walk.

You detect Taylor as she comes up the stairs and wave to Crystal to be ready to answer the door. The girl stops and blinks at Amy's presence, but soon enough is drawn into a conversation about something school-related with her—standardized testing, you think.

Brunch is served shortly thereafter, and when you join the women the topic has switched over to Emma.

"See, Vicky is the sparkle-princess of the group, so she goes to most of the meet-and-greets with Carol, but I've been too." Amy twirls her fork and points it at her hair, "But the red hair and the 'I'm a _model'_ stuff really stuck with me. She tried to get me to help her drop a few pounds, apparently she barely fit in whatever they were having her model."

Taylor doesn't say anything, but it's obvious from the edge to her smirk that hearing that made her day. Crystal picks up the thread of the conversation. "So yeah, I talked to Aunt Carol, and she'll probably talk to Mr. Barnes. She should also point out the _multiple videos_ that show everything so the 'I didn't start it' bullshit gets cut down." She reaches out and pats Taylor's hand, "I don't know if things will change immediately, but tell me if they keep bothering you."

Amy cuts back in and smirks, "We could always send Warlock in to pick Taylor up on his motorcycle." The longer-haired brunette blushes and drops her head.

You put your hands up. "Oookay, sounds like a conversation I don't need to be here for."

Crystal reaches out and runs her hand down your arm as you gather some empty plates. "Are you saying you wouldn't want a ride on Warlock's bike?"

"Oh hell no, it's an awesome bike. I just wouldn't be able to contain my excitement being next to all that _leather_," you respond drolly.

The girls talk a bit—you'd moved the table a bit farther away from the kitchen so you'd all have room—and you overhear Crystal give Taylor the lowdown about Warlock coming to set wards on her house later that evening.

That's your cue to walk back over and offer her a duffel bag of the security cameras and such that you don't need any more. "Also, Warlock's put up wards for my apartment here, so if you need help figuring out the weird feelings let me know. The main thing to watch out for is the 'shiver down your spine'—that's the intruder detection ward. Then you supposedly feel a general direction the intruder's in, but that doesn't help me here."

Once Taylor's been fed and the chatting is over, the three of you head back to the lair. Amy heads to off to check over the greenhouse, while you conjure a bunch of beanbag like cushions and flop down with another couple of runes books. Crystal is switching between homework and and some notes you've given her on meditation.

You also call Aelfie over. "Did the ritual work for you as well?"

"Oh yes master James, but like Ælfgifu said you need to push less magic in. The ladies magic be working fine for self-changes like that, you not need to be helping."

"It was also the first ritual I've done, you know," you point out.

The elf pats your hand, "Master James did great too. Did you want Ælfgifu to do something today?"

"Yes, actually. Please look over Taylor again, but be aware she can sense through bugs. Also, if you can find any Veritaserum I'd like it. I didn't see it when pulling things out of the potions compartment."

The elf pops out and you roll over to look at your Lady. "Hey, can I finger-paint on you?"

Despite your amusing lead-in, once you explain what you're trying to accomplish, Crystal happily lets you draw runes on her right arm in ink, with corresponding ones on her left fingertips.

"Okay, this will probably only last for a handful of uses, but let's try it."

Amy walks in about five minutes later picking dirt out of her fingernails and stops dead when she sees you. "Do I want to know?"

Conjuring a handkerchief, you wipe your eyes clean and look at her. "You're about to find out."

In the healer's defense, she immediately backs up and looks to either side and behind her.

Then she looks up.

And gets _splorch_ed.

Crystal lands and pouts at the broken ink lines on her arm. "Well damn. It lasted long than you said it would, though."

You splorch Amy with some conjured water and smirk at the look she shoots you. "Now you know."

After a successful test of a runic tattoo-without-the-tattoo, you sit both ladies down to talk about the next thing you're going to study. You explain how the obliviate and false memory charms work, and that neither actually has you read minds to do so.

Just to play it safe, you have Amy watch while you tell Crystal to remember something—the words 'blue, 17, squid' in this case—and then obliviate her of the memory. She has no idea why you and Amy are asking her for 'code words' until you reverse the oblivation. You switch back and forth between them until you get a handle on how best to phrase things to ensure everything you want is oblivated, and nothing else. Legilimency helps you there, of course.

For the false memory charms you do something similar, implanting in Crystal memories of a grand orgy of you, her, and the S Klub. Once the memories are created, you have her tell Amy all about it.

…considering that the memories pull from the person's mind to fill in details, and Crystal has become a very sensual person, she has some _great_ stories to tell about how the two of you fucked all of the girls into puddles of satisfied goo. Amy seems to agree, since she has to fan herself a couple of times when—Crystal details eating Savannah out while you fuck her ass, for example.

You reverse the memories and the two of you pat Crystal on the back as she complains about how she _didn't_ really have six tongues on her at the same time.

With kisses all around and a promise to meet up for dinner, you head off to scry on Coil. Just like Aelfie had said yesterday, nasty snake man is in his hole, talking on the tellyphone. You tune in to see what's going on and it appears he's having a totally amicable chat with Lisa.

"—listen, if Grue is going to be out of commission, then hit the next stash house during the day. Take Regent and a car and walk the area, it's residential. Pretend you're looking at houses or something, then break in and loot all of the documentation. Keep any money, and don't worry about burning things, just slash the bags and dump water in." He pauses for a second, rubbing at…the side of his head, you'd guess. "No, you don't need to worry about Nebeltrupp, he was apprehended by that Warlock. Yes—" he clenches his fist, "exactly, he was somewhere around at the time. It may be because of the Merchant connection. Most of his sighting that _aren't_ healing happen at night, so going during the day has multiple benefits."

You wait a bit until Coil hangs up then apparate in and use a medical spell to switch the contents of the ampoule into his bloodstream. Onset supposedly occurs slowly over the course of 6-12 hours of increasingly obvious hallucinations, so it's possible that Coil will ramp up during the night and be ready to go Monday morning. You'll have to check in on him and see.

While you're at it, back at your lair you verify that the accounts that Quinn set up for you are ready to take incoming wires. Once Tommy-boy is chasing figments of his imagination you can initiate transfers to offshore banks. It will take a bit to fully wash it, but you'll likely see it within a week.

In between doing that you dump a couple of memories in the pensieve and run out to buy an actual DSLR camera and a GoPro-like thing. Between that and your phone camera you have a range of recording options.

Being able to send your lover a picture of the two of you cuddled on the couch the first time she came over is pretty awesome, you have to admit. Following yourself through Randy the Merchant's house is less fun, especially when you get really intimate with the pause and rewind functions so you can get pictures from 'your' perspective. You wonder if some research could find you a way to alter the pensieve to switch to a first-person perspective….

Checking in on Coil a bit before dinner he seems disappointingly normal if you ignore the constant twitches of his head, like he's seeing or hearing things around. Maybe he'll need a bit more time before the fun parts kick in.

At dinner with your ladies you tell them that the Coil situation will hopefully clear up sometime this week, and that you'll be doing some 'cosmetic alterations' on a celebrity who'll apparently be in town.

That gets Amy's attention. "Wait, you're going plastic surgery?"

"Ah, no. I have been informed that surgery is done by doctors. I'm doing alterations, like tattoos or piercings."

"And you're just doing piercings, I'm sure."

You shrug, "Nose piercing, boobjob, whatever."

Later in the evening, Crystal gets a text from Taylor that her dad's gone to bed, so you suit up and apparate nearby and flick a rock at the window that has your symbol taped to it.

Taylor opens the window and you chuckle, "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?"

The bespectacled girl looks down at you with a twist on her lips. "I'm not doing a murder-suicide."

"Fair. I've thrown up some spells so that no one will pay attention to the area for the moment. You wanna come down and I'll explain what I'm doing? At the very least I need to tie you to the wards."

Shortly after the girl is looking at you as you bury stones at the corners of the property lines and a second set at the corners of the house. "So, since this isn't my property the only thing this is going to do is warn you that someone has entered onto the property, and again and more vigorously if they enter the house. I've set it so you and your father are the only two excepted for this. That way if you get the first warning it might be a meter-reader or kids skipping through your backyard, but the house thing will tell you if shit's going down."

Since you've removed yourself from the wards, you help her test the sensations by stepping on and off the property and again in and out of the house. Taylor starts to offer you a drink before remembering your mask issue, but you chuckle and remove your mask revealing a half-mask right below it.

"I'm cheating, of course, but having a mask that gives access to your mouth is probably a good choice for a number of reasons, really."

The blink and head turn the girl gives is amusing, as if that hadn't sunk in yet. "Ah, yeah…."

As you're leaving, Taylor puts a hand on your arm. "I… know of someone I suspect is a cape. Would it be okay to get your information and just… leave it somewhere they could find it, maybe?"

You tap your cape phone to hers and transfer your number. "Don't give it out to just anyone, but sure. I'm not available all the time, so text is the best option."

You apparate to a random roof and hit yourself with some bug-killing spells before heading to the lair and then back to your apartment. You have barely slid into bed when Crystal floats into the air and over your lap, rubbing herself along your cock reverse-cowgirl. Reaching out to touch the jewel with your symbol on it you set it to gently thrust at the same time that Crystal reaches underneath to guide you into her.

The pace she sets is a sexy slow grind and her dirty talk isn't the _normal_ kind of talk you'd expect, but it's pretty hot nevertheless.

"So Soon-Yi's birthday is coming up next week, and we've missed the other girls' birthdays too…" She hilts you and rolls her hips before looking back over her shoulder. "I'm thinking of giving the girls a—let's call it a sculpture—for their birthdays from the clay Aelfie found while she was looking for your truth serum."

You flick her plug and get a little moan out of her. "Are you trying to get my dick into everyone you know?"

Crystal clenches down and starts riding a bit faster. "Only the ones that would look good eating your cum out of my pussy."

"Fuck, Crys," you groan as she coaxes your orgasm out of you.

Spooned in bed a bit later with a smug smile on her face, you pull her closer to you and kiss her on the back of the head. "I love you," she says.

"I know," you respond.

You get an elbow in the belly. "Don't you quote Star Wars at me, dad does it to my mom all the time."

"I love you too, Crystal," you laugh.


	42. Week 7, (Mon, Feb 28)

You jog with Taylor, shower with your girlfriend, and hit up a morning class before changing in to your costume to go grow some breasts on Sandralina Tolli, the pouty-lipped film star.

When you fire up your Warlock phone you expect to see some texts from Quinn Calle verifying that everything's going on as planned.

You are _not_ expecting to see a number of texts from Templeton.

**Temp:** you asshole

**Temp: **what did you feed coil?

**Temp:** he's in the goddamn ducts

**Temp:** no one can get him out!

…you check Quinn's messages and respond to tell him you'll be in his office to pick him up in half an hour, then hurry over to scry on 'ol Tommy-boy.

When you first get a look at him, he's hiding in a ceiling and sweating like a hog. There's a klaxon blaring in the background and he's furiously typing something into a phone.

As he sends whatever message he was typing he does the fuzz thing, which you have to assume is him spawning a timeline. He starts creeping between rafters, fuzzing pretty much constantly.

Dropping into an empty office, he turns and looks at nothing, blurring crazily as he shadow-boxes with some figment of his imagination before pulling out a knife and 'stabbing' it. You don't know what beast he just slew, but he resheathes the knife and counts his fingers carefully as if he's missing one before looting the small personal fridge, dumping water over his head, and creeping out into the hallway.

Leaving liquid snake alone, you get ready to head off to your lawyer. Should you text Templeton back?

[x][Text] …let me know if you need help, be busy for a bit.

…let me know if you need help, **:Warlock**

gonna be busy for a bit **:W**

**Temp:** what did you give him

…he must be high on life, dunno **:W**

gotta see a girl about a thing. **:W**

You apparate into Quinn's waiting room and wave to the receptionist as you walk to his office. As soon as you walk in the door he hands you the signed documentation showing that Sandralina has agreed to all of the pre-surgery alteration disclaimers. She's commandeered the top floor of the nicest hotel in town, so you'll be arriving on the balcony. You also managed to test a smoke-producing rune engraved on portkeys, so you can continue to do the 'appears out of smoke' thing with multiple people.

Quinn's a lot more relaxed about this portkey, and the two of you appear poised and posed, only to be met by Sandralina's personal assistant. What follows is an interesting lesson in someone saying 'my boss is crazy, so please don't provoke her and drive her into more weirdness please' while not using those actual words.

Sandralina Tolli is reclining on a divan when you're lead inside, looking pleasantly plump and bracketed by two topless women introduced as her 'muses', 'Sandra' and 'Lina'.

Really.

You peek into her hand and see what you can only describe as a functionally crazy person. There's no way to tell without trawling back through her entire life, but the actress believes whole-heartedly in… well, pretty much everything. Angels, demons, aliens, vampires, fairies, lizard people, etc, etc, etc. So you are to her not a cape, but indeed a wizard, come to bippity-boppity-boob her.

Quinn and the PA are hovering just out of sight as you walk up and casually grow a seat out of the floor and sit back. "Miss Tolli, I see that you did indeed listen to my instructions. Are you ready to have restored what cancer took from you?" You feel like your words are stilted and fake, but it's just like reading from a script she's written in her head.

"Yes!" she exclaims, whipping her shirt off. "Work your magic upon me!" While the mastectomy scars are minimal and her nipples were apparently reattached, you can still see the faint lines crossing where her breasts once were. Touching the small jar of blood around her neck she leans forward and whips out a knife from behind her. Checking her thoughts over, she's already planned the 'restoration of her perfect body' as some kind of occult ritual. While you watch she lightly slices her chest, as well as the the palms of her muses and they press their bleeding hands over the scars. Sandralina starts chanting in… some made up language while the other two ladies writhe and moan.

Turning your head over to the PA, you see her rubbing her temples and rolling her eyes so hard you're afraid you'll need to reattach them after they fall out. Quinn's giving you a look that clearly says 'Sorry, I didn't know she was _this_ fucking crazy'. Turning back to the blood ritual you decide to cast verbally in order to play along, so with an incantation her breasts begin to swell as you pull mass from other locations. Sandralina screams ecstatically in tongues as her muses' hands get pushed out and you turn her otherwise-flat chest into what is likely a pair of double-Ds.

Vanishing the blood—and telling it her it was 'used up' in the process—you do your best to keep your amusement from your voice as you go through the process of correcting her nipples so they no longer look like sewed-on pepperoni. That she wants them to have small Kabbalah symbols worked into the areolae… well, you can't find it in you to be surprised.

With her breasts restored, you lean back in your seat and twirl your wand, letting it trail sparks. She seems to consider you some kind of benevolent all-powerful Merlin-figure, so you play up the lazy confidence. "Do you find your form to your liking, Miss Tolli?"

You're pretty sure she appreciates the fact that she has feeling in her nipples again, because she can't stop flicking them. "Yes, Master Warlock. However, if I may prevail upon you….."

…this woman is a fruitcake.

Over the next hour or so you end up fiddling with the size of her ass—"give me an apple bottom, as it symbolizes the temptation of the apple from the Garden of Eden", removing all of her body hair from the nose down (to be 'more like the fae'), and sculpting her cheekbones to be more angular (…'like the angels'). Luckily her 'muses' and PA were there to offer multiple points of view, because what she _actually_ looked like, and what she saw in her head were very different, and would have had her looking more like a grey alien than anything remotely human.

Said muses and assistant also ended up getting a bit of work done on the house. The girls were apparently up-and-coming actresses in their own rights, doing mostly indie films and having been hired to pretty much be eye (and bed) candy for the more-famous starlet, and the PA was already compiling a list of other assistants that she worked with frequently who she'd be recommending to you.

As you're finally finishing up you exchange autographs. The personal assistant has an instant camera and get a stack of signed pictures of Sandralina's new look and you pose with all of the ladies and sign a couple of pictures of your own (with color-changing, glowing ink from a hippogriff-feather quill that Aelfie slipped you while they weren't looking).

Before you portkey out, Sandralina asks you for a benediction. You…

With Sandralina kneeling on her divan in supplication, you turn and slowly pace closer.

"I offer you a benediction of love…"

"Love, Miss Tolli, is the strongest force in the universe, for good or for ill. The love of a mother for her child, the love of a soldier for his brothers, the love of the wicked man for the power he wields over others."

You spread your hands out and send a soft warming charm. "But the love that we have for our fellows is what I give unto you; the love that will rebuild cities, a love that will restore families, a deep, abiding love for every man, woman, and child that has been beset by the cruel monstrosities we have been forced to battle."

A soft cheering charm joins with a gentle breeze to blow the hair from her face. "Take this gift, this love, and build it up within your soul and repay that love a thousandfold, nay, a _millionfold_, for love is a gift that only grows greater in the gifting and a flame that only burns brighter when shared."

You raise her head up and trace your symbol in the air to glow in front of her. "In the name of the Hallows I place this benediction upon you; may it fill your heart and sharpen your words. Go forth and tell all who will listen that the love of humanity must rise up to battle against that which tries to destroy us. Offer an open hand and a calm heart to those who have been harmed, and your pure, honest love shall overcome all that is arrayed against it."

Sandralina is openly crying and you place an hand on her head. "Look not to me for further words; look within yourself and meditate upon your love for your fellows; speak your heart and make your love manifest upon the world. _Dōmi amāyō dō dhoubnom."_

_Give love to (the) world_

Happy, joy-filled weeping follows you as you join Quinn on the balcony.

Disappearing in another cloud of smoke and getting back to Calle's office, you flop down in his visitor's chair and look at him. The man looks like he just realized that a favorite actress of his is a complete wacko. Finally he turns to you. "That was… a thing."

"She's completely crazy, you mean." You spread your hands and shrug, "She really gets into her performances and lives them if it helps."

"No, it doesn't help."

Back at your lair, you go over a couple more texts from Janice, as well as a couple from Crystal and Lady Photon. Crystal and her mom had done a noon patrol and have asked if you've heard anything about the PRT today, as they're not responding to calls like usual.

Templeton's texts are her opening up emotionally to you.

**Temp:** if I ever piss you off

**Temp:** just fucking kill me

**Temp:** He shit himself and threw it

**Temp:** and is hooting like a monkey

**Temp:** no more gang stuff after this

**Temp: **im going on vacation for a month

Scrying Coil shows that he's apparently escaped the PRT building and is currently fighting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or something like that) in a sewer somewhere, having lost his guns. At least you hope it's the Turtles; assuming it is the movie will be awesome, the fight choreography is incredibly life-like.

After a few moments Tom apparently 'wins' his fight and finds a sewer opening with the manhole cover off and climbs up, stumbling towards the street while trying to look a little less like he just escaped from a mental asylum.

You're considering swooping in and grabbing him when through the scrying mirror you hear an explosion, see crazily-strobing lights, and your phone starts blowing up.

**Laserdream:** Uh… PRT building just got hit by Fenja

**L: **w/ a battering ram

**Temp:** might need sum hlp

And in the mirror Thomas Calvert makes it to the end of the alley and is immediately zapped by an image of a flying head screaming 'Wise fwom your gwave!'

He turns into a weretiger, stares at his claws, and looks down the street.

Wolves, zombies, headless skeletons and demons shuffle at him from one side, and grey blobs, demons, and bipedal wasp-things approach from the other. In the distance there are werebears, werewolves, and weredragons laughing hysterically and zapping enemies.

Throwing a hand out towards a blob creature it gets zapped by a corkscrewing ball of energy and explodes in a shower of pixels. With his own manic laugh he turns into a glowing ping-pong ball, rocketing up and down and destroying another couple of monsters.

**L:** U&L stuff going on near PRT

**L: **E88 attacking PRT

You let Templeton know what's going on downtown and get a short message back

**Temp:** prot doing leet

**Temp: **e88 jailbreak

Where do you go?

[x][Fight] Head to the PRT building with Laserdream and Lady Photon

[x][Prepare] Have Aelfie track Coil

You text Laserdream and tell her you'll meet at the car park from a couple of weeks ago and let Templeton know you're on your way. "Aelfie?"

With a near-silent _pop_ the elf appears. "Master James?"

While you tap out an update to Amy with directions to let Vicky and Eric know you turn to the elf. "Coil—the snake man—has gone crazy and is running around. He's been caught in in another cape's powers and looks like a tiger-man." At her blank look, you remember she's from the 10th century and has never seen a tiger. "Um, a cat-man. There are also dragon, bear, and wolf-men, but they're glamours, not actual werewolves. Anyway, as long as Taylor is safe, track Coil for me. If he is about to leave the city, stun him and let me know. Otherwise let him keep acting crazy."

"Okie, Master James. Miss Taylor be okay right now." she agrees and pops away.

You apparate to the roof of the park and look out on the PRT building down the street. Part of the side has been staved in and an odd couple of Fenja and Mush are guarding the hole with a forest of blades restricting access from the sides. Hookwolf is currently destroying a PRT truck on the northeast side of the building as the agents run away, and the street to the south is blocked off by an opaque fog with something skittering inside it.

A moment later with a _clickWOOSH_ something slams into the opposite side of the building from the capes and explodes in a shower of papers.

This is… this isn't _a_ Coil plan, this is pieces of a dozen Coil plans mashed up and spit out into a fucking mess.

Laserdream and Lady Photon land a moment later and you all compare notes.

The E88 and the remainder of the Merchants (Mush, Ink, and possibly some guy in a armored suit) are trying to break the capes in the PRT cells out, Uber and Leet have turned almost the entire area between the PRT buiiding and Arcadia into a free-for-all, and mercenaries with heavy weapons are around taking potshots at buildings and PRT vehicles, but not people—that they've seen.

That just reinforces how crazy things are. Coil has taken bits from a number of plans he had in case of various issues, like capes being arrested, and triggered them all to happen at the same time. Uber and Leet are the wildcards but something made them set up this close to the PRT base.

"Why were so many capes held here instead of out on the Rig, anyway?" Crystal asks.

The three of you exchange looks. "Piggot making a bad decision?" Lady Photon offers.

You text Templeton for an update and get a pretty quick response:

**Temp:** 2dz CAS

**Temp: **pulled back to top flr

T**emp:** giving up capes

**Temp:** kaiser n ink inside w/backup

Lady Photon has been checking her own phone and Manpower, Brandish, and Flashbang will be converging on Arcadia to meet up with the younger New Wave capes and start swinging north to deal with the Uber and Leet invasion and hopefully join up with the Protectorate and sweep up to back you up afterwards

You three are the only assistance that the PRT building proper is going to get at the moment. Even if the Protectorate ignores Leet's craziness and tries to come across the force bridge, Hookwolf would meet them if they came from the north or east, and Night and Fog keeps them from approaching from the south, so they'd have to fight through one or both, and that's before one of Coil's hit squads does something.

Looking out with a supersensory charm, you can spot two merc squads with eyes on the building. One looks to have antimateriel sniper rifles, and the other has at least two visible RPG-7 launchers.

You…


	43. Coil Chaos

"As much as I hate to say it, capes escaping are the least of our problems," Lady Photon admits. "We don't know what's going to happen with those snipers if the people affected by the video game start spilling over here."

"Templeton says she has something like two dozen casualties as well on the top floor," you offer, "I'd like to hit both the sniper and rocket nests, then try to evacuate the wounded to here. After that…" you trail off and shrug.

"Stop the jailbreak if we can?" Crystal offers.

"Yeah."

Lady Photon looks over the edge and shakes her head, "If they escape, they escape. They'll do something else stupid soon enough for us to catch them again, and I guess you have contacts with New York?"

"Well, _a_ contact for a one-time thing, but a line to someone, yes."

"It still sounds like you were treated better than we generally get from anyone other than Janice and a couple of the squad commanders. Anyhow, go and take care of the non-capes, and we'll keep Hookwolf and the others busy once you're done."

Looking over to where the snipers' nest is, you disillusion yourself and apparate silently. There are two sniper/spotter pairs, each looking out from one side of a corner office's sides. It's easy enough to walk up while silenced and hit each pair with point-blank stunners before binding and freezing them and destroying the rifles.

Even though that only takes you a minute or two when you look over to the RPG nest there are a couple of fingers poking earbuds as they try to check in so you repeat the apparition and manage to stun the guy about to launch the RPG at the sniper nest. The other two follow in short order before they are able to report in either. While you know some of the codes they use to communicate, you have no idea of the current day's randomly-generated checkin code, and that'd be the important one.

You pop back to let the New Wave ladies know that they're clear and shoot Templeton a message

Snipers and rpg down **:Warlock**

Let me in roof access **:W**

**Temp:** good. done

Sarah and Crystal take off and toss a mother-daughter beam combo at Hookwolf as you pop over to the PRT's roof. You do put up a shield just in case, but the door is thrown open and a four-man squad comes out to cover you as you get close. They escort you down a flight to the actual top floor, where Templeton has most of the non-combatants rounded up with a couple of groups guarding staircase access points.

"Commander," you greet her as you walk up, "I'd like to get you all out of here. My current choice of evac point is the parking lot at the end of the block, but if you have other ideas I'd be glad to hear them."

The older woman considers it for a second and brushes a hand through her hair, sending bits of ceiling tiles stuck in it drifting down. "No, there's almost sixty people here total, it'd take you forever."

"Everyone, all at once." You reach into a coat pocket and conjure a couple hundred feet of rope. "Get everyone to hold on to the rope, or loop it over an arm or leg. Once it's done, let me know and the rope and everyone attached gets out of here."

She looks at you and her eyebrows twitch. "Well fuck. Samson, get to it."

There's a noise from the side that sounds suspiciously like 'hell no'. You look over and see a corpulent woman sitting in a chair looking a hairsbreadth from death. "Director Piggot, I presume?"

"Yes," she manages to get out. Sweat is heavy on her brow, "Capes getting transported places is one thing…" she pauses to cough wetly and breathe for a moment, "but PRT troops being transported by a non-Protectorate parahuman…"

"In _non-emergency_ situations, Director…." Templeton interjects irritably.

"Look, I know the answer to healing, but do I have your permission to run a diagnostic on what's wrong with you, Director?" you offer.

"N—" "Yes!" Templeton overrides her, then easily matches and exceeds the sick woman's glare. "You're a drain on my goddamned resources, Director, and I need to know where you need to be extracted to—a hospital here, or the secure PRT medical facilities in New York."

"_I will have your job for this_," the portly woman hisses as you pull out your wand and flick.

"Well, _I'm_ both aroused and scared," you announce loudly to try and defuse the brewing argument, getting a round of snorts from pretty much everyone not directly in Piggot's line of sight. It only take a second to digest the scan and you bring a hand up to pinch your nose and run in to your mask. "Well, how lovely."

You see both women about to ask, so you hold up a hand. "Ignoring the existing kidney and muscle damage, you have been poisoned. It's recent, and considering how widespread it's diffused through your system I'd suspect it was done by poisoning your dialysis machine." You clear your throat and look off to the side. "One of the effects of dialysis is removing urea from the blood, which the kidneys generally do; in addition to the poison—which seems to be floor cleaner—someone peed in your dialysate."

"Fuck!"

"…fucker."

"You need _actual_ dialysis, not just the little machine you use here or at home or whatever. If you get that relatively soon you'll likely live, but recovery is going to be a cast-iron bitch and take a long time."

Piggot's grey pallor had managed to go a few shades paler. "And you could fix it, I suppose."

"I can stop the poisoning immediately. Fixing the damage from it would take five-to-ten minutes as it's so extensive. Repairing your kidneys and the muscle tissue would take longer—I'd have to grow them from scratch and fix a fair amount of scarring. Panacea would be faster than I."

There's a stare down between the women as Samson comes back around with the rope. Piggot grabs on angrily and Templeton snags the last bit and looks at you.

When your hand goes on the entire length glows blue for a second. "Last chance, everyone on? There should be a yanking sensation like you're being pulled and then we'll be there." You pause while verbal check-ins are done and Janice gives you a nod. "Alright. _Portus_."

The trip is so short that there's no spin to the portkey, so everyone manages to stay in roughly the same position they were. There's a groan from Piggot and she has to take a couple of shuddery breaths. You ignore them to check in with your Lady and her mother.

…and you quickly find there was no reason to be worried as the two women are pinballing Hookwolf up and down a stretch of street. The changer looks to be missing a fair amount of metal and doesn't seem to be enjoying his treatment in the slightest.

Fenja tosses a bit of rubble at Lady Photon to try and assist her fellow cape and gets blasted in the face for her trouble as Laserdream dribbles the metal Nazi on her own and then shoots him into Fog's cloud. The follow up shots cause screeching that could be metal, or could be the inhuman alien hiding in the mist. A final shot tells shows that at least one of those screeches was metal, as Hookwolf goes rolling out of Fog looking a little acid-washed. _Fuck_, you love that woman.

Templeton interrupts your admiration session by putting a hand on your shoulder. Her other hand is holding a phone to her ear. "Can you send the wounded to the NYC PRT roof?"

"Yes, but longer trips give a spinning sensation, and it'll take like ten seconds. They either need to be sitting or laying or have decent balance. If Piggot's going she needs to get hooked up to the machine in like the next five minutes. _Seriously_."

The two of you walk over to where the agents have established a cordon around the casualties. They've re-used the rope and the few walking wounded are quickly ushered to the ground.

You conjure paper with your diagnosis of Piggot's condition and hand it to the woman. She doesn't pale any further at the huge text stating 'IMMEDIATE DIALYSYS REQUIRED', but that's largely because she's already corpse-pale. You tap the rope. "The next person who is holding the rope and says 'extraction' will trigger it."

There's another set of checks and Templeton talks into the phone before one of the wounded agents with one hand on the rope and the other holding a pistol speaks the trigger word and two dozen people disappear with a soft inrush of air. Moments later Janice says 'Acknowledged' and turns to you. "They've arrived. Set up!"

The agents set up into squads of six and two of them head downstairs. Templeton turns to you. "Your plans?"

"Well, since the New Wave ladies seem to have outside in hand I was planning on skipping past Fenja and Mush and trying to keep at least some of the capes from escaping."

The PRT field commander looks you right in the eye. "I am obliged to inform you that current PRT policy is to stand down and allow the jailbreak if the casualties have reached the levels they have currently risen to."

"Okay," you respond blandly. "Y'gonna tell me not to go in there?"

Her eyes flick over to where two dozen people had disappeared and reappeared in New York without you having to go with them. "I'd just like to point out that there's no reason to risk yourself when we aren't."

"Noted. If I encounter anyone interesting I'll keep them knocked out and contact you, alright?"

Templeton looks over the city and sighs. "Sure. And again, if I ever piss you off, just kill me, okay? No weird drugs, don't teleport me into space, just kill me and be done with it."

You cock your head at her. "Aw, love, couldnae do that to ya. Just innt cricket."

The older woman mutters something uncomplimentary but has a slight smile on her face. "Just go. Christ. Cells are the bottom floor, B2."

Looking out at the PRT building, it appears that Hookwolf has been driven west along with Night and Fog, and Fenja and Mush have bunkered inside the shell of the building itself to hide from the Blasters. You fire off a quick text to Laserdream to let her know you're heading inside and apparate into one of the holes in the building that the RPG team had blown. An _alohamora_ forces open the elevator doors, and a quick look tells you that the shaft below is empty. You smokejump to the bottom and disillusion yourself before you crack those doors and look out.

There's no obvious damage to the walls or anything, but only a few of the overhead lights are lit. There is a sign giving the direction to the 'containment' section, so you head that way.

Once you're at the cells it's easy to see that everyone has escaped and you're a little late, as all of the doors have been ripped from their hinges by large steel rams and something has collapsed a wall and blasted through something like thirty feet of stone to enter the storm drains.

A muffled rumble sounds through the ceiling and shakes dust loose everywhere as you cast a _homenum revelio_ and pick up some presences disappearing to the west. Using smokejumping to catch up reveals a crazily-motley crew.

Kaiser and _Purity_ are escorting Othala, Menja, Stormtiger, and yet another of Othala and Derek's cousins, while Ink and Chariot lead the Merchant contingent. Trainwreck is towing Squealer and Skidmark behind them on a trolley of some kind. The groups are standing on either side of a larger chamber with Kaiser and Ink discussing things.

"…is at an end. I have instructed my troops to allow safe passage to the Trainyard for you."

The heavily tattooed guy that's built like a brick shithouse cracks his knuckles and looks at the armored cape. "Why're you doing this?"

"With the PRT this damaged, what's left will band with the Protectorate and possibly call in reinforcements from Boston or New York. I will not accept outside interference in my city." There's a metal-on-metal screech as he shifts his shoulders. "We should meet and discuss this further once the dust has settled. Somer's Rock, Thursday. I will have Lung informed."

The tattoos you can see writhe and flex, appearing to almost escape from the man's skin. "Fine."

You have a chance to do something before they go their separate ways. Do you do anything?

This would be easier if you used the time tur—you feel yourself on the other side of the group. _Damn_ you're good. Since the other you should have been in place as they showed up, you decide to cast tracking spells on them in your future/their past. Then… you wait a moment and there's a pulse from his/your mind and Kaiser's armor vanishes below the shoulders leaving him in a very nice, well-tailored suit.

And then your _Stupefy Totalum_ hits at the same time as the cannonblast charm. Everyone drops like sacks of potatoes except for Trainwreck, whose suit stays largely upright but immediately vents steam, and Othala's cousin—Mark?—who might be invincible, but even if the light and sound didn't cause serious damage it disorients him long enough for you to tag him with an _orbis_ jinx and embed him hip-deep in the brickwork.

You start throwing _incarcerous_ spells out on everyone and hit your preferred targets with body-binds when Chariot's armor gives a chirp like an alarm system arming. A moment later the back pieces separate slightly and an electrical crackle starts up. You drop portkeys on Othala and Purity, then begin to move over towards the Merchant side when whatever auto-defense system Chariot has starts arcing into the steam cloud from Trainwreck. You banish a portkey-rock into Squealer right as the hulking Tinker shudders and shifts.

A message from yourself arrives and tells you to take care of the prisoners so you apparate to your lair and situate all three women (does this make you sexist?) in the cells you used last week. You have a minute or two before you need to go back, so while Squealer and Othala can be left to their own devices, Miss Budget-Legend gets a hastily enchanted necklace that's unremovable and will render her unconscious if she attempts a hostile action—that's the best equivalent you have to 'using a parahuman power' at the moment. Conjured notes are stuck to each cell mentioning that you will be by to check on them later.

A quick pop back to the far side of the meetup lets you tag everyone as you had planned, making sure to get Trainwreck just in case you can't get him at all. You send the appropriate signals and cast the cannonblast/flashbang (cannonbang?) spell. Flicking a temperature-detection charm at Trainwreck's armor shows the whole thing is somewhere north of three hundred degrees, and the shifting that had occurred as you left earlier heralds the steampunk-Tinker lashing out, hitting nothing but air.

"You fuckers ain't stealing from me again!" He roars, swinging again and smashing a hole in the concrete. Debris sprays out and hits both gang leaders, who stir. A moment later Ink's skin looks like it erupts as a multicolored dragon springs into existence and coils around him and metal metal cocoons Kaiser and forms into his armor.

Then the shouting begins. Mark—still embedded in concrete—manages to focus their ire by mentioning your name. You decide to leave and let the rats deal with themselves for the moment and check back in on your prisoners. None of them have stirred in the past few minutes and you verify that the sinks and toilets are working.

You call Aelfie and check up on Coil. "Snake-man is more crazy. He be blowing up little monsters and laughing."

"He's not trying to leave?"

The elf gives you a look. "He be in the kill-frenzy, not stop until no more enemies left."

You summon a bottle of water to your hand and a second for Aelfie. "Keep track of him, but don't watch him constantly. Look over the prisoners and if that one starts glowing knock her out. She has a charmed necklace that should do it, but in case it doesn't work just keep her asleep until we can establish order of some kind."

You shoot texts off to both Templeton and Laserdream, the former about having prisoners and the latter asking what they're doing. Templeton responds first.

Temp: Come see me please

Back in the same car park you've barely landed before Janice thrusts a piece of paper at you. Looking it over—"you've deputized me?"

"So you can hold the prisoners for as long as feasible, at least until we have secure transport to the cells on the Rig."

"The Rig had cells? Why weren't—"

Templeton just gives you a look that explains everything. The two of you walk over to the edge of the building and she stays silent as Laserdream and Lady Photon land beside you. "I'm in charge at the moment, but as soon as the fighting stops command is supposed to revert to Piggot. Since she's in New York, it's supposed to fall to Rennick, but he was off today and we haven't heard from him." She turns and looks towards where the _Altered Beast_ soundtrack is playing, "I may stay in charge, but Calvert was already reported as going crazy before this, so even if I'm taken off it won't be him." Her eyes flick to you. "By the way, is he?"

"I have someone monitoring him. He turned into the tiger-man and is… well, let's just say its not making him any calmer. Apparently he's having the time of his crazy-ass life."

Lady Photon interjects. "He's not an actual tiger, is he?"

"No, it's a power-up in the game they're doing. No idea how Leet's done it, but he can shoot a fireball-beam-thing from his hands and do this zig-zag up and down thing. I guess they're holograms?"

There's a bunch of blank looks all around before Templeton continues. "Who did you manage to capture?"

You run through both your strike and the prisoners quickly. Janice focuses on Purity. "Assuming I'm still the one making decisions at that point I'd like to speak with her. We have suspicions that there were complications with her break from the Empire, and if I can do something about making it permanent this time I'd prefer it." She shakes her head, "The aftermath of this is going to be horrible, and I'll deny this if you bring it up later, but you," she twitches her head towards Lady Photon, "might want to talk with your group and think about stepping up patrols or even taking territory like one of the gangs for a while. It's something that other cities sometimes do, but Piggot always flatly rejected the idea." Looking at you, she frowns. "One cape isn't normally enough to claim an area like that, so…"

You cross your arms. "Maybe I'll turn Medhall's building into a wizard's tower and take over Downtown."

_Someone_ makes a muttered comment about flying monkeys, Crystal cracks up laughing, and there's a bunch of sighing and throat clearing.

Lady Photon interjects with information about the rest of the capes. All of them had run off, although Hookwolf had been so badly beaten he reverted to his human form and been carried off by Fenja.

Laserdream looks up from her phone. "Panacea is at the hospital and they're triaging. There's a cape there helping her keep order she's never seen before—some kind of bug controller apparently—and Manpower's at Arcadia and they're slowly moving this way."

You:

[x][Monday] Wake up Purity, bring her to Templeton to talk

[x][Monday] Go heal at the hospital

"Why don't I get Purity now and you can talk, then I'll go heal." You turn to the New Wave ladies. "If I'm needed you can call me in, but otherwise a second healer would probably be more helpful than a third blaster."

Janice and Sarah exchange looks and nod. "Probably for the best that I leave," Lady Photon says, "Purity and I had words recently."

Both white-clad women take off and you accompany Janice over to the elevator/stairwell building. "Not the best place, but it's my only real option at the moment." She gets distracted by radio chatter, so you take the time to create a couple of chairs, a couch, and a desk, then partition the area off to provide some privacy. When she's done she looks at what you created and then considers you carefully. "There's no way I can talk you into joining the Protectorate, is there?"

You laugh. "Sure, if you can ensure I do no paperwork, do what I want when I want, answer to no one, and don't have to deal with any PR-related crap."

"You could just say 'no', you know," she responds mildly.

You give her a flip of the wrist as a shrug-equivalent. "So I'll go get Purity and bring her to the couch. You can let me know when to wake her up. I've put a necklace on her that will knock her out if she attempts a hostile action, but I'll change it so you can knock her out with a word as well."

Templeton has divested herself of some of her body armor and is checking over her handgun. "A little over-paranoid?"

"I could take her, but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable with taking a shot to the dome."

"Fair. Is she going to be groggy coming out of it?"

"Not normally, but as she was in a sewer with a bunch of other capes her first reaction might be violent. I'll be ready to freeze her if she does so you can try and get through to her, but knocking her out is always an option."

Janice nods and takes a moment to scrub at her face. "Okay. Go get her. Don't suppose you have coffee around. Or any bourbon handy?"

"I have some single-malt scotch that smells like getting throatfucked by a peat bog," you offer. "…and some whiskey if you'd prefer that."

"Please."

You pop to your lair and find Aelfie holding a bottle of an Irish whiskey from a wizarding distiller—not firewiskey, luckily enough, you'd find it hard to explain that—and a pot of coffee. "All still asleep, snake man got punched in the eye by dragon-man and they fightin', snake-man win and go even crazier, he peeing on things to 'mark territory'."

You slide your mask off and stare at the elf. "You're _kidding_."

"He totally crazy, Master James."

"He totally is. Anyhow, I'm going to take the dangerous one, you're okay with not paying as much attention to them. My Lady is flying with her mother, but Amy is healing at the hospital. Taylor is with her, but in disguise. Please keep an ear open for Amy if she calls."

Aelfie nods. "I let her know I be around. Bug-lady be good help." She pops away and you float the drinks behind you as you body-bind Purity and check that she's still unconscious, then apparate with her back to Janice.

Drinks on the desk, cape on the couch, and you look on in amusement as Templeton looks at the carafe and back at you. "Do you expect me to drink the whole damn thing?"

"_I'm_ not drinking any, coffee is disgusting."

"I knew there was something deeply disturbing about you," she comments, then scowls at you when you conjure a mug that looks like her face. "I'm not drinking from my own head."

You give her a mug that declares her 'World's Okayest PRT Commander' and she grumbles while pouring a bit of whiskey into her coffee. "I'd prefer to just sit and drink rather than deal with this clusterfuck anymore, but let's continue. Go ahead and wake her up."

With one hand you flick it out and _rennervate_ the cape, and the other you point at Janice once you're done. She picks up the cue smoothly right as you hear the prone woman inhale and start to glow slightly. "Purity, it's Janice Templeton."

The glow moderates somewhat, and you hand a pair of sunglasses to Templeton. "I am here with the independent cape Warlock. I would like to speak with you about what in the hell you thought you were doing."

Purity's up and hovering a moment later. You hold up a hand. "I'm here because I tracked all of you down into the sewer and was able to apprehend a couple of you. Be warned, either Janice or myself can knock you out with a word, you will be rendered unconscious if you become hostile, and I can pull your ass back from wherever you go while you have the necklace I put on you on. Oh, and if you try to take it off it'll hurt you. _And_ knock you out."

Much like being in a mask, there's not a lot of facial expression from a glowing figure. You can certainly tell she's nonplussed, though. You do a hand-shrug. "Just establishing that it's time to talk, not shoot." You step back and she turns to Templeton, who gestures her to a seat.

Once they're settled you slip out and stand outside. Menendez is standing there. "She talkin' to Purity?"

"I think they're just playing a game of who blinks first right now."

The guy snorts. "She knows better than to do that with a glowin' chick." He shuffles his shoulders to settle his armor harness and looks over at you. "Hey, thanks for coming and pulling all of our asses out of the fire earlier. I heard from T that you found that the capes had skipped out, but we had no way of knowing if the walls were gonna start growing knives, ya know?"

You incline your head. "You're welcome. Just because I like doing my own thing doesn't mean I wanted you to get fucked like that."

"Still, I—" he breaks off and holds an finger to his earpiece, then starts laughing. "Ah shit." He points to the door and you look over. Right as you're about to ask what the hell is going on the door swings open and Templeton glowers out.

Looking at Menendez her scowl tips down a bit more. "Not a word, asshole."

"Of course not, _Madam Acting Director_."

With an angry puff of air through her nose she turns to you and freezes as she sees your sloppy salute. "You two are never allowed to talk to each other again. Fuck both of you."

You toss a look over at the chortling guy. "I'd have to clear it with my girl first, but shit, I'm down."

That doesn't help Menendez _at all_, you're afraid you're going to need to heal him when he collapses of asphyxiation. "Dude, you gonna be okay?"

Taking a deep breath and pointedly not looking over at the door, the sergeant manages to get down to chuckles. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good." Clearing his throat he continues, "I'm glad you got the job, Templeton."

Janice pats his shoulder and turns to you. "So yes, I'm acting director of this shitshow for at least forty-eight hours, and likely for the rest of the week. What I was about to ask though," she gestures you in to the room, where Purity is fidgeting on a chair, "is if you can create one of your teleportation things that Purity can use to take her to the PRT outpost on the Boardwalk."

"Portkey, and yes, but my aim will be better if I know exactly what part of the Boardwalk you're talking about, maybe go and mark an area out so people will stay out of it."

Purity's glow flickers for a second. "Is it dangerous if someone's there?"

"Not for _you,_ but for them. They'd get shoved out of the way."

Janice fiddles with her radio and holds up a finger. "Beachhead, this is Temple, copy?" A moment later she continues, "Friendly cape inbound, Warlock. Black jacket, silver mask. Repeat, friendly. Let him set up a secure area, he will report back to me." She looks up. "Mark a spot out or something, then hurry back, please."

Nodding, you apparate to a roof overlooking the center of the Boardwalk and find where the PRT has established a presence, then smokejump into their line of sight. "Clear to enter?"

A moment passes before they wave you in. "Templeton wants me to set up a landing spot for people. Gonna make a little three-sided shelter and mark it out."

One of the officers points you to some open space. "Over there would be best, it won't get in our way. If you have a second, could you do walls to block the side approaches?"

"Yeah, but I really just have a few moments." You create an open-roofed stall with warnings about it being a teleport destination and throw up quick fused-sand walls for the troops. They raise their hands in thanks as they redistribute themselves and you reappear in Templeton's office. "Done."

The cape is texting and Templeton is scrolling through something on her phone, but looks up at you. "I'd like to provide Purity with a… portkey with a verbal trigger. She needs to attend to personal issues and then will report to Beachhead in half an hour."

Looking at Purity you skim her mind and find her to be tentatively hopeful. Kaiser had lured her in with sweet talk about letting her run her own strike team, but then the sweet talk turned to veiled threats against Aster. She wants to cut ties and knows she needs assistance to do it, and Templeton is someone she's dealt with enough to place a bit of trust in.

You create a frisbee-sized hoop and turn to the cape. "Masks?"

"Yes, please."

Two resizing masks with an explanation of them later and you turn to Templeton, who props a hip on the desk as Purity leaves. "You going to heal?" she asks.

"About to, yes."

"If I could add on to my tab…" she starts, then continues when you wave her on, "could I get another rope-coil portkey, we're going to fall back to the south ferry station and we don't have enough vehicles to carry everyone."

You make her another length and give her the code-phrase. "You'll need to text me if Purity doesn't show up and you want me to yank her back."

"If she doesn't show up on time, I'm unlikely to spare the fucks to give until tomorrow. Too much shit to do now."

[x][Templeton] Do you need healing?

[X][Templeton] Are you getting any backup from other cities?

[x][Templeton] Any ideas what you're going to do next?

"Understandable," you say. "Before I go, do you need healing?"

She blinks at you. "I didn't think I got hit by anything, did I?" She starts checking herself over before you speak.

You flap a hand at her. "Nothing visible, but I didn't know if your massive brass balls were throwing your back out or anything."

"No, but the clinking is annoying me. Fuck it, do a diagnostic." She pauses and raises her voice enough that Menendez can overhear. "I have no problems with parahuman healing, by the way, even if I have to do M/S testing afterwards."

You nod and hit her with the spell, and other than some mild irritation that looks like it came from some good sex recently she's in decent health and you tell her that. "If security permits or whatever later I can hit you with a basic tuneup and change your oil and such." You hand her one of your 'cosmetic alteration' cards. "Now I know I don't have need to know or anything, but are you getting any fucking help from anyone, and do you have plans _I_ should be aware of?"

Reaching up to poke at the white streak in her hair you can see her turning over what she's willing to say in her head. "The Bay has gotten shafted pretty much every time requests went around for help in the past. I don't know if it was Piggot that caused it or _that_ caused _Piggot_'s attitude. Either way we were already a hair from being considering a HOSV, so I'm not sure that any assistance will be coming." She gives a single-shoulder shrug. "With that said Boston and New York _have_ said they're willing to send supplies so logistics aren't going to be my sticking point. I'm chewing over an idea or two; might have to play nice to the gangs while things simmer down, as much as I don't want to, and I may have a request of both you and New Wave—and no, 'please join the Protectorate' isn't it. I'll let you know more when I set up a time."

"Fair enough," you shrug, then throw another sloppy salute. "Madam—no, _Mistress_ Acting Director."

Both of you ignore the snort from the open door, but Templeton looks longingly at the whiskey. "Kinda wish I had powers so I could set you on fire right now. Can you hold the other two prisoners for a day?" At your nod she relaxes fractionally. "If Uber and Leet are apprehended let me know and I'll authorize you to hold them as well, and thank you for it. Now, just… go away before your humor infects the troops." She makes a shooing motion with a smile on her face as you pop closer to the hospital. You throw Amy a text about it and check in with Crystal. Crys responds first with an 'all good', and Amy comes through a moment later telling you that 'bug cape' will meet you downstairs.

Your smokejump onto the hospital campus attracts attention, but between your own intimidating visage and the swarm of insects that boils out of a side entrance no one approaches you.

'Bug cape' turns out to be Taylor with what you assume is her canon mask but one of Amy's spare robes. A gentle probe tells you that the mask is all she has completed so far, and she grabbed it and headed somewhere she thought she could help. "Panacea, you're looking… different."

"Wwarrllockk." she buzzes. It's not exactly a swarm voice or anything, but she's using natural bug noises to enhance and change her voice. "Panacea is this way."

Amy's set up in the same place she was last time and after checking in with the admin you start healing immediately. Taylor flits in and out, and after some questioning determines that she's run off gun-wielding idiots for the third time you and your mistress call a quick break to talk to her.

"You're gonna need to come up with a name or you're gonna be given one like 'Buggsy'." Amy points out, "Your name's gonna come up when police reports start coming out."

[x][Taylor] Weaver

"Fluttershy," you interject, and both you and Amy snort at Taylor's cringe. "Kidding. Also there's always a chance you could upgrade later if you're badass enough. Like if you go with 'Wiggle-worm' and then a couple of months from now you smack Hookwolf around like a little bitch there will be few arguments when you want to be called 'Swarm Queen'."

"Arachne?" the masked girl offers.

"Plaguebringer!" Amy chirps, then scuffs her foot when you both turn to look at her. "You could goth her all up like you did with Laserscream and I…."

"Arachne works, you could also go with 'Lady Bug'," you say, emphasizing the pause between the words, "if you went with a more medieval theme—maybe a mace with ladybugs on it?—even 'Weaver', which would make you sound less tryhard, and if you could get spiders to make silk it's even a decent description."

"Oh, that's good. Maybe not as a permanent thing, but I'll do Weaver for now, and if I end up getting into fights I'll think about changing it." She looks off to the side. "I don't know how good bug control would be in a fight anyhow, so I don't want to sound like I want to."

Amy walks over and slings an arm around the taller girl's shoulder. "We can talk about dangerous bugs, maybe a trip to the zoo to pick up some bullet ants or something…"

"And let's see if we can enhance your bugs while we're at it," you offer. "Give me like a spider and something flying."

A moment later a roach flies past you and sets down on a table and a spider descends on a string. Both bugs sit unnaturally still as you regard them. With a snap of you fingers you _engorgio_ both, bringing them to the size of a cat or so. "Can you still control them?"

The roach takes off and orbits the room (and says away from a visibly uncomfortable Amy), while the spider—"

"Are you making it do the Macarena? I think that's against the Geneva Conventions."

The arachnid gives the impression of sticking its hands on its hips despite lacking both hands and hips, so you throw your own arms up in the air. "Okay, fine, fair enough."

With a couple of minutes' work, you work up what's effectively a staff that will enlarge bugs and hand it over to her. "One shot per thirty seconds. Only use it on bugs, and expect the bugs to die afterwards. The embiggening should last about an hour, hour and a half. It uses your own body energy, but you should be okay unless you're literally zapping as often as you can." As you start healing people again you also take the time to change what she's wearing to something more thematically appropriate, so the white robes become a cape and cowl that look like folded beetle wings, and the shirt and jeans (after Taylor gives you the okay) turn into leather armor with chitin plates. She kinda looks like a aracno-druid, but pulls it off pretty well. You both give her your numbers. "Call or send a bug in to poke if you need assistance, please."

After that you both get stuck in to healing for close to an hour before a message hits both of your phones.

**LP:** LD wounded req healing

**LP:** Bayview and Atlantic

The two of you exchange incredulous looks before you step back and immediately apparate.

When you arrive it appears that things have been overstated a bit, as Crystal is upright, but her father is blocking the view to her. Heads swivel your way as you move up quickly "What happened?"

Multiple voices start talking before Crystal shouts them down. "Hey, quiet! We had found Uber and Leet, and some other dude was helping them fight. The guy was about to hit Lady Photon from behind so I dove in between. My shield took one hit, he did some crazy up and down thing a bunch and your shield finally broke, and he hit me one more time with the bouncy thing." You pass around the hulking figure of Manpower and find her costume is in tatters but her skin is only slightly red. She's covering her breast and groin with her hands for modesty but the damage looks like a minor sunburn. "I'm _fine_," she adds with emphasis.

"You're probably right, but let me check." You flick out a diagnostic and nod. "Friction burns, a bit of bruising where I assume he hit with a fist, no deeper damage." With a few flicks she's healed and her clothes are fixed. "You're sorted. Anyone else need seeing to?"

No one does, so you end up standing near the captured capes. Uber and Leet are remarkably relaxed, but Calvert has rebar wrapped around his arms and legs in multiple places and would probably be frothing at the mouth if he wasn't quite as dehydrated. He also smells faintly of shit. You silence his ranting and attention turns to you. "If Lady Photon hasn't had a chance to announce it already, the PRT building was hit earlier and Piggot was medivaced to New York. Janice Templeton is current acting Director, and has asked me to hold detainees until tomorrow to be turned over, likely to the Rig."

Brandish steps forward. "The ranting idiot is a PRT officer."

You're supposed to contact Templeton about taking Uber and Leet in. What do you do about Calvert, though? Keeping him might open Cauldron's eyes to you even more, but if you leave him with the PRT anywhere he might disappear.

[x][Coil] Coil gets dropped off to the NY PRT

"I am _totally_ not willing to hold a PRT officer, I can just imagine the absolute shitstorm that would cause." You pull out your phone and dial Templeton. It almost goes to voicemail before she answers, and you tell her you're going to put her on speaker and let her introduce herself so that they hear her voice before you continue. "Acting Director, I'm here with New Wave. They stopped Uber and Leet, and I will take them into custody for you until you let me know you're able to take them in."

You can hear the sigh through the phone. "Excellent, and thank you, New Wave for your work. You wouldn't be putting me on speaker like this if there wasn't a complication though."

"They caught a PRT officer," you start, and then take the ID that Brandish hands you "looks like the name is Thomas Calvert." You flick your wand in a diagnostic and find out that Coil's not doing too bad body-wise. A quick peek in his head and _wow_, there is barely anything resembling complex thought at the moment, it's more like the Doomguy's 'rip & tear' thing. "He is currently on drugs and having something that resembles a berserk episode. I am completely against holding law enforcement, I can't even begin to imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth that would occur when the press gets ahold of the story."

"Wonderful," comes the voice on the phone. "You sent some Empire capes to New York last week, right? Who'd you talk to?"

New Wave (minus Crystal, who you'd spoken to about this) are looking between themselves and you, and Uber and Leet have gone pale. "It was a contact my lawyer had, but Sergeant Luis Prior."

"Excellent, I know him. I'll reach out to him and see if he can take him."

"Go ahead and give him my number to call," you offer grudgingly. After she hangs up you look at your phone. "Now I'm going to need _another_ phone, this one is all infected with PRT."

It only takes five minutes to get both a text from Templeton and a call from Prior.

"I _know_ I didn't order a goddamn thing this time."

You laugh. "And I don't want a gibbering fucking wreck of a PRT officer sitting around here. Fair warning, he smells like literal shit, so get the firehose and a scrub brush handy."

The voice over the phone goes from amused to resigned. "Unfortunately there's no hose on the roof. Confoam does block smells a bit though. We're ready for you to come through."

"I'll be there within two minutes." You look over at Brandish who is creating and extinguishing a very saber-like blade near the gaming duo. Manpower's humming while she does it is just extra cruelty. She gives you a head nod and you flick a portkey rope around him. "Back momentarily."

The trip there takes only a few moments and it's just Prior and a small detachment this time. The older man looks at the insane lump and the badge you hand him and tries to match the two up. "Well, if I ignore the faces he's making it does look like him."

"I assume you've been briefed on me enough to know I do healing?" you ask. At his affirmative grunt you continue, "Did a basic scan. He's on drugs, traces of amphetamines and _something_ that's not a drug I can classify. Designer drug of some kind, perhaps.

"Anyhow, he's pretty underweight and dehydrated, violent, and slippery as an eel." You make a grasping gesture like you're trying to talk your way around a touchy subject, "He was inside a Leet hardlght construct and took a couple of good hits while he was flipping out. You might wanna do a head X-ray for… concussion."

Rubbing a hand over head stubble, the sergeant cuts you a look. "You always seem to bring trouble when you show up."

"I'll consider sending you a fruit basket next time." With a incline of the head you pop away, check in with New Wave, and go to grab the videogame villains.

You take Uber and Leet to your lair and stick them in the Rune suite after giving them a second bed. Leet's defeated slump of the shoulders after being told that there were only books to read was pretty amusing, truth be told.

While you're there you check in on Othala, who takes one look at you, turns away, and curses in German—or at least you're pretty sure she curses, you can understand 'schiesse' well enough, but the rest doesn't register—and Squealer, who ends up getting force-purged of all of the drugs in her system. The PRT was trying to wean her down using conventional medicine, but for you it's as simple as a few waves of a wand. She stares at the wall afterwards, tears trickling down her cheeks. You instruct Aelfie to keep careful watch and head back to the hospital.

Lady Photon has called a meeting of New Wave (and you) to go over what happened today in a couple of hours. Taylor was offered a seat if she wants to go, and with some prompting from Amy and ducking out to make a few calls she seems like she'll accept.

You're sure that there'll be questions about Crystal's incredible resilience, so how do you want to frame it?

[x][Brute] It's magic (Explain nothing. Confusion abounds.)

-[x] Didn't we already go over this?

Before you go to the meeting, you check in on Coil's base. There was never really any decent plan for shit hitting the fan quite this hard, but a quick skim of activity from Calvert's terminal shows that the majority of the mercs have bugged out. Some of the data that individuals had access to has been deleted, but with Coil's credentials you're able to restore pretty much all of it. You also lock the systems so that you need Coil's access to change anything, and reset the passwords to random ones you've selected.

[43][Base] Lock the base down, hunt down mercs, turn them over to the police

His voicemail looks to be full of messages, many of them from Tattletale. She's asking for updates on what's going on. In fact, she's calling right now.

[29][TT] Pick up. "1-900-HOT-HUNK, how may I serve you?"

With a little work to scan the cameras and sensors that Coil has access to it looks like you have maybe a dozen people still in the base. You trigger the lockdown procedures and start the automated transfers of the safe funds you'd earmarked while you hunt down the mooks. It's probably cheating to use cameras and then apparate behind people and stun them, but if it's wrong you don't want to be right.

Once they're stacked like cordwood you kick back at Coil's desk and ensure that the initial transfers go through. The moneywashing will take a bit longer to complete, but it's a good start.

That's around the time Tattletale calls… again.

Picking up the phone you put on your most sensual tone. "1-900-HOT-HUNK, how may I serve you?"

There's a moment of pregnant silence on the other end before Tattletale's voice breaks it. "What happened to Coil?"

"Coil's not here, baby, but I can be him for you."

"You—he—shit he—" she cuts herself off and you hear typing faintly. One of the log files you're watching shows a new admin log in by one of the administrative clerks.

…that clerk is currently unconscious in the mess hall. Oh _Tats_, you're so sloppy_._ You kill the login and mark everyone other than yourself as locked out. "Stop rushing ahead babydoll, let's build up to a satisfying climax together."

You're not sure if she meant to make the angry growl audible over the phone, but it's pretty amusing to hear.

A monitoring program pops up and notifies you that she's logged in to one of the bank accounts you didn't want to touch because it was linked to someone you didn't want to warn—Accord rather than Cauldron in this particular case.

You drop the faux flirtatiousness."Think carefully about where you take his money from. You could very easily inherit trouble, Tattletale."

All the villain spares you is a hissed, "I know who you are, _Warlock_."

"Cheers then, luv." You hang up and watch her drain Coil and Cauldron-linked accounts before physically shutting down the power to the server racks. Can't hack what doesn't exist online, after all.

After turning over the mercenaries that didn't run over to the police you finish up healing with Panacea and grab a bite to eat before meeting with New Wave.

Taylor—going by 'Weaver' for the moment—is introduced and thanked for assisting Amy, and everything up to the question you're waiting for is talked over.

Since Templeton had brought it up earlier, you explain how you ambushed Rune and company last week and turned them over to the NY PRT. There's even a bit of complaining when you mention you kept them overnight in your lair, and both Amy and Crystal point out that New Wave should have a lair, what with them being a longer-established set of capes. Neither Sarah or Carol seem amused, especially when Neil, Vicky, and Eric agree with the girls.

You mention your talk with Templeton and what you found and who you captured beneath the PRT building. Everyone is warned to look out for the Merchants and Empire, but especially the latter, as losing both a heavy-hitter (even if she had largely broken away) and their healer may cause Kaiser to lose his cool.

And then…

"Crystal, how exactly did you become a Brute?"

Laserdream looks over at you and you incline your head to her. You had had a moment to talk and let her know it was fine. "Warlock did it."

Heads swivel to you and you spread your hands. "Remember what I told you almost exactly two weeks ago?"

Carol—the lawyer—recalls it first. "You said you were a wizard."

"Exactly. And what do wizards do? Magic."

Again, Carol is the first to leap into the argument. "That doesn't explain _anything_."

"No, it doesn't," you say, leaning back and putting your ankle on the opposite knee. "My powers are my powers. I will say for the record that this can be done to anyone, takes hours to accomplish, has no side effects other than exhaustion immediately afterwards that's cured with a nap and involves like thirty bucks in materials." You spread your hands. "I've done it to myself as well."

"Amy, are there any signs that anything has changed with Crystal?"

"No, I hadn't noticed anything," the healer says, and puts a hand on her cousin to verify, "there's nothing different about her physical makeup, no brain changes, no hormone changes, nothing. If you told me that she could take a hit from one of those things I saw I'd tell you you're lying."

The lawyer turns to Crystal, "What were you thinking doing this without asking us first?"

"That if Warlock hadn't been able to get to you fast enough earlier this month you'd be dead, so hopefully it'd make me bulletproof," your girlfriend retorts.

Carol and her sister pale and the wind seems to go out of Brandish's sails. Neil leans forward and takes over. "Does this have any effect on powers?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no. This effects the body itself and should work on non-capes just as well as parahumans."

{1} Add information about rituals?

Manpower looks over at the older generation of New Wave. "So you can just make people low-level Brutes just like that?" He snaps his fingers for emphasis, the sound loud in the room.

"Not at all," you say, turning to look at Laserdream. "I had Crystal memorize a chant, there are symbols that need to be drawn on the body—in your own blood, let me be clear about that now before you freak out later—the process itself takes hours as I said, and the actual boost you get is dependent on what significant item is chosen.

"This is… look, allow me this metaphor even if it's inexact. Brandish is a lawyer. Using arcane language and specially formatted words—the way she has to type up depositions and such—she manipulates something—the legal bureaucracy—to make 'magic' happen." You tap you fingers on the table. "Or think of a computer programer. A weird language unreadable to outsiders, formatted a specific way, a weird, mystical process converts it to a program which runs and does things. With Laserdream and myself I used a turtle shell—symbolic of protection—and we are more resilient. If I used a symbol of speed, perhaps a rabbit's foot, we might be able to run. A bull's horn might make us stronger." You spread your hands in a shrug.

Sarah leans in. "Is this permanent? Are there side effects?"

"Permanent until dispelled or replaced with a different boost—one at a time for this particular ritual. And no, I can't just snap my fingers and cancel the boost on either of us. Cancelling it would take actual effort and time, probably a hour at the minimum." You pull off your mask and reveal the half-mask and take a drink of water. "As for_ side_ effects, no. However if the ritual is messed up there can be consequences." You point to Crystal again. "Tell them how I had you practice."

Crystal explains the bloodletting, chant practice, and paint-by-numbers rune drawing. All of the younger New Wave kids seem curious, while the older generation seems to swap between interested and concerned.

"So Warlock saw you nude? What does James have to say about that?" Sarah asks.

"He's glad I'm safer. And _he_ also did the ritual as well." _That_ sparks some suspicious looks from the mother.

Carol interjects, "How many people have you done this to?"

"Three," you say, "and before you get any ideas of me doing it right now it is actually more draining on _me_ than the other participants. I would not feel comfortable doing it again before tomorrow at the earliest and I'd feel better about Wednesday."

"What about—" "Could you make us fly?" Manpower cuts in.

You shake your head. "Not at the present time. I'm still learning more as I go here, and I'm only willing to do things that are safe and I have an understanding of. Flight isn't one of those things. _Jumping_ on the other hand might be doable. And again, combining boosts isn't an option at the present time."

After the meeting is called, but before you walk over to the younger group, Carol and Sarah stop you. Leaning in, Brandish asks in a low voice, "Is something like the ritual you do capable of treating depression?"

You shake your head. "No, the ritual's effects are physical only." Holding a finger up at her downcast look you continue, "On the other hand I also heal, but in a 'magic' paradigm. I can't go in and poke the brain and just _make_ it create whatever hormone it's lacking or what-have-you, but if someone has an existing antidepressant regime that's largely working I can create a potion that does the same thing for a longer period of time—months, probably." You hold your hands out. "I'm not a shrink, so I don't know what SSRI or whatever would work best. I can diagnose and fix physical wounds, but mental issues? No idea where to start."

Carol nods and walks off looking thoughtful while Sarah catches your sleeve. "I hope you have been completely forthright about all of this, but thank you for doing something to keep her safe."

After that the meeting breaks up and you end up in a group with Crystal, Amy, Vicky, and Weaver. Crystal is tapping at her phone and frowning, so Vicky nudges her. "Problem?"

"Yeah, Taylor hasn't responded to any of my texts! I know Winslow wasn't anywhere near the trouble, but the gangs were out. I'm worried."

Crystal was looking at her phone and Vicky at Crystal, so both girls miss the look on Amy's face and Weaver's blatant twitch as she touches one of the pockets you had put in the armor you made for her. You reach out and touch Crystal's shoulder. "Perhaps her battery drained while the schools went into lockdown and she hasn't charged it. I can stop by her house if you'd like."

"Please!" She gives a worried smile as Vicky slings an arm around her shoulders.

"Oh, hey." Amy pokes you and you turn to her. "Weaver and I were discussing bugs and maybe some ways I could help them and I wanted to know if I could take them to your greenhouse, maybe set up some beehives and terrariums."

The druidic-looking cape fiddles with the staff you created nervously. "I promise not to go looking or touch anything and stay with Panacea." She does her best not to fiddle with her hair hidden under the cowl so that Crystal doesn't recognize her, "And if you want I'll find a place to put the bugs after Amy helps me get breeding pairs!"

{2} Weaver access

Looking between Amy's face and Weaver's mask you consider it for a moment. "I'll need to go there first and adjust the security system. For the moment the greenhouse and the main room are fine, but I'm blocking off the cells."

"Perfectly fine!" Weaver says a touch quickly, visibly bothered by the fact that you have cells and people in them.

Right before you head out a series of texts come through from Templeton so you catch LP and Brandish's attention. "Don't know if you got them, but Janice sent some info. She'd like a meeting tomorrow with New Wave and I, around 3 or so, the old South Ferry Terminal." You pause to let them digest that. "And it sounds like she's going to ask us to take over patrol duties for parts of the city."

After dropping the meeting info off on the rest of New Wave, Vicky flies off to check on some of the Wards, and you apparate to your lair and tune the wards before texting Amy to hold on to Weaver and use her portkey. The two arrive and Crystal shows up immediately thereafter. You're about to leave and check on Taylor—and who knows how that would go—when Amy tugs both girls towards the greenhouse and tells you to wait a moment.

You spend the time talking with Aelfie. Uber and Leet are actually handing things the best—both capes have requested books, although Leet's sounds like a video game tie-in novel—and have eaten and showered and such. Squealer is sleeping, and Othala continues to sulk.

Crystal comes stalking back in while staring at her phone. "I… heard from Taylor." Gentle probing shows that Taylor unmasked to both girls and your girlfriend is currently trying to come up with a good line of reasoning for Taylor to unmask to _you_, so you will unmask to _her_, and then she can plausibly request that the younger girl get ritually boosted as soon as possible. "Aelfie?" she turns to regard the elf, "please watch over my sister and her friend."

"Of course, my Lady," the little elf says, then blushes to the tips of her floppy ears when Crystal gives her a quick hug.

Standing and snagging your arm, Crystal whispers 'home, James' and you pop her there and release the sticking spell on your mask as soon as you land.

Crystal kisses you firmly and grabs you in a ferocious embrace. "Oh my god, I'm so glad we did that ritual!"

Your own hold is no less strong. "I couldn't imagine what had happened when I got that text. I was planning on testing the limits of the buff in a _controlled manner_ this week, not stepping in front of a crazed maniac."

A shudder runs through her and you run one hand through her hair. "I didn't even think, I just did it. It knocked all the air out of my lungs and I couldn't say anything for a minute or two, so mom must've assumed the worst."

The two of you strip each other and move to the bathroom where you expand your bathtub and you just cuddle in the warm water for a while. Crystal actually falls asleep curled against you and you deposit her in bed before checking in on the girls.

You now have an apiary on one floor, and they both talk about the various spiders, wasps, and other creepy-crawlies they've found living arrangements for. It's when Amy starts mentioning the plants she's been cultivating recently that it hits you—Amy took your suggestion of being a plant-controller cape and has run with it. She's helping Taylor in order to turn them into a heroic (you hope) duo. Flora and Fauna, maybe?

After you take Taylor to a park in the general area of her house you come back and find Amy checking on a growth of long liana, making the woody vines sway with a touch. "Are you getting up to no good?"

Her smile is sly. "Mmmmayyyybe…" she drawls, "more seriously, neither Weaver nor I are ready to do anything yet. We'd need practice at what we're doing, and I really would feel better if she was protected with the ritual."

"I'll think about it but I don't want to become a ritual slave. Or an enchantment slave for that matter."


	44. Week 7, (Tue-Wed Mar 1-2)

The city is quiet Tuesday. Probably too quiet; it's obvious that people are waiting for shit to hit the fan. Both the Empire and ABB have their unpowered mooks out and visible, although actual _crime_ seems low. The Bay's school system is out and Amy and Weaver are back to doing things in the greenhouse. Crystal joins them so you keep yourself away splitting your time between looking through your books for non-lethal spells and checking over what's happening on PHO.

For the former, your abilities at snap Transfiguration are good enough that you can turn someone into a sloth; unfortunately that doesn't seem to completely disable capes, as when you test it on Crystal she's still able to fly, albeit slowly.

You also manage to figure out a quick series of spells that takes debris nearby, turns it into chain, and animates those snake-like chains to overwhelm a person.

On PHO you run a search for your name and it returns sightings of you during the previous day, as well as official statements from one of the spokespeople from the desk of 'Acting Director Janice Templeton' praising you for your 'quick thinking and decisive action in assisting the wounded in the PRT building.' No mention is made of _how_ or that you tracked down and took prisoners afterwards, which you appreciate.

_Someone_ has been telling tales, though, because a number of suspiciously-white-power-esque named posters have all started accusing you of 'kidnapping' and 'stealing children'. You can guess that Purity got Aster (and probably Theo) and ran, although whether they ran _to_ or _away_ from the PRT is an open question at the moment.

As if conjuring the devil by thinking their name, you get a call from your favorite PRT Director. "Have you slept?"

"Yes, actually," her slightly hoarse voice says. "Three whole hours."

"Janice…"

"I'm fully aware it's not sustainable, but I've almost finished shifting actually dependable people around to where they need to be. Anyhow, I called because we're capable of taking the prisoners."

"Alright, do you want them awake or asleep?"

"Asleep if I have the choice. I'm actually at the old _North_ Ferry Terminal at the moment. Come here and find an out of sight spot to bring the capes."

You let Crystal know where you're going and pop over to the area. While it's been cordoned off by fencing, that fencing now has an topping of barbed wire and PRT troops are swarming the place. Deciding that walking in would be better than smokejumping you do and soon enough you find Templeton in what resembles a shed. "Nice joint you got here."

Janice looks okay, although you're suspicious that she's wearing the same clothes from yesterday. "I'll have a transport van pull up from the Rig in a couple of minutes. After talking with them, finalizing personnel changes, and the meeting with you and New Wave, I am going to bed." She sits back and scratches at a cheek. "Piggot lived, she's currently in a coma. Calvert apparently has a _brain tumor_ of some kind and has been moved to the secure hospital facilities in PRT-NY and is sedated. Heavily." He eyes flick up to you with amusement. "Apparently they didn't sedate him enough the first time and he tried to escape. He was caught because he had a catheter in and it kept him there like a leash just long enough for someone to notice."

"How... lovely, Janice."

"Had three stragglers show up as well, so no reason to go calling for a lost little lamb."

A diesel rumble heralds the transport pulling up, so you pop back to the lair, knock the four capes out, and they're quickly deposited and restrained. The news that you dried out Squealer gets a muttered 'thank fucking Christ' from the medic who was going to have to oversee her.

Once they head off you eye Templeton again. "May I?"

She blinks, "If you think you need to."

Checking her over she's fatigued and stressed—not a surprise. There's only so much you can do unless you want to start dosing her with Pepper-Up, but you _are_ able to help a bit. While you're at it you clean and remove the wrinkles from her uniform. The set of her shoulders relaxes a fraction and gives you a look. "I don't actually need a batman, you know."

"And I'm not gonna be yours, but you'll have to deal with Brandish, so…" you pause and cock your head, "speaking of which, should I have _my_ lawyer on speed dial at the meeting?"

"Not for the meeting itself. I'll have a packet available for Calle to look over sent by our lawyers after the meeting itself." She settles back in and pulls over a pad. "I'll see you in a couple of hours."

You head back to your lair and join the girls in the greenhouse for a bit. Weaver is directing swarms of bees like a conductor as they pollinate everything in sight, and Amy is growing some large ivy-looking leaves and stripping them off and having Crystal shoot blasts at them. A pile of mulched parts shows that the leaves have been getting more resistant to the blasts, but there's still a ways to go before they're viable as armor of any kind.

When she's not playing pollination patrol, Weaver apparently has a second mask being worked on, this one being a half-mask. There's an amazing amount of silk being generated, some by enlarged spiders. You're not sure how long it took her to make the mask in the first place, but the second looks like it'd be ready in a couple of days at this rate.

A little before the meeting time, you join up with the adults of New Wave and Laserdream. Shielder and Glory Girl are are their respective houses, and Panacea is at your lair along with Weaver. All three are in communication with the adults in case something happens—neither you nor the others _expect_ anything to be amiss, but this is apparently similar to things they've done previously.

You all take one of your portkeys to the open plaza in front of the old terminal, appearing in quickly-vanishing billows of black smoke. The two flyers take off immediately and the rest of New Wave walks in a triangle formation, Manpower leading. You walk slightly separated, although Crystal's flight pattern takes her mid-way between the ground-bound contingent of New Wave and yourself.

The old ferry terminal is swarming with people, most of which are _not_ PRT. In fact, as you're waved through security and guided to a temporary trailer for your meeting, you notice that most of them look to be from the Dockworker's Union. Danny Hebert is either crying or celebrating, you're not sure which.

The trailer you're let in to is double-wide and obviously someone thought ahead, as it's reinforced and tall enough that Neil doesn't have to stoop. Janice is already there along with a couple of other PRT-suited administrators flipping though paperwork, as well as Armsmaster and Miss Militia. The former of the capes gives you a slight nod of the head as you move to a seat while the latter's eyes track you and narrow slightly.

Seats are offered, introductions are made even though everyone is at least nominally aware of who the others are, and Templeton gets directly down to business.

"Yesterday was an absolute disaster. The PRT director was poisoned, our main base attacked, and the only reason it wasn't worse was because we had sent most of the administrative personnel home because of an unrelated issue.

"Piggot is in the hospital and will not be able to take up the director's position again. My temporary appointment was made longer earlier today—but it came with some problems. I have one month to effect changes in the Bay. If I fail it's not just my issue, the city will likely be listed as an HOSV, and the PRT may very well either wash their hands of the whole city and let nature take its course, or conversely bring in an increasing number of Protectorate capes and let them try to take down the villains of the Bay. I'm sure you can imagine how well that would go.

"During my predecessor's tenure capes were either with the Protectorate or were—at best—considered problems and troublemakers." Taking a breath she rolls one shoulder a bit. "That's bullshit, and I think the city suffered for it. I understand that you aren't actually corporate capes, but the same provisions apply for any parahumans who are willing to provide assistance. To that end I am reopening the affiliates program—any cape or group who registers will have at least some access to supplies, contact information for the on-call PRT teams, and increased bounty amounts." She stops and eyes the table. You have no real need for PRT supplies, but the other things wouldn't _hurt_ at least. Packets are passed around outlining the program information itself as Templeton gets ready to continue. Leaning forward a bit and looking over to New Wave she taps on the table, "Related to the affiliate thing but not directly connected, I wanted to speak with you because you are the largest independent group in the city." She spares you a glance and grows the tiniest of smirks, "And Warlock."

The small chuckles ease the mood of the room as she speaks again. "In another city with a PRT that worked _with_ local hero groups, you would have already been asked if you wanted to claim a particular area of the city and split jurisdiction of it. However, with the gangs as they are now, I would feel better if you responded to crises just as you did yesterday. What I am hoping for is that we can more closely coordinate in the coming month to bring the gangs somewhat to heel, and perhaps finish the Merchants off completely."

With a look between them, Lady Photon and Brandish apparently decide to let the lawyer go first. "What would be the limits of this proposal?"

"I am _not_ asking you to join the Protectorate. I _am_ asking you to listen to any ops we have planned and tell me specifically if you will assist, and if not, if you would be willing to be visible elsewhere to offset any increased aggression by the other gangs. New Wave and the specific capes in question would be given full credit for all work they perform. If you are willing to directly assist you will be offered access to our tac-net and plans will be changed to include your abilities. If you will allow for it, we will create longer-term plans taking your assistance into account on taking a fight to the gangs _and we will listen to your feedback._"

Flashbang, of all people, half-raises a hand. "Even with our assistance, that's a lot of capes to deal with."

Templeton gives a chuckle and points at you. "Less than there were. Warlock delivered three Empire capes to New York last week, and captured Purity and Othala yesterday. Your group captured Uber and Leet, and Squealer was _re_captured." She looks over at Lady Photon. "Speaking of those capes, I spent the afternoon talking to all of them after Warlock dropped them off. Purity has decided to join the Protectorate, in large part apparently to a conversation she had with you sometime recently. She's currently wrestling with the Image department.

"Uber and Leet will be offered a plea deal—probation and assisting us in the Bay. If they don't take it, they're getting shipped to NYC and letting _them_ continue prosecution. They have spare lawyers on their legal teams to take care of it. I am currently in discussions with Othala and Squealer similarly."

That's more actual progress than the PRT has had in a while. "So what are your high-level ideas about the gangs?"

"It depends. How badly did you cripple Coil's mercenary force?"

You smile with your voice. "What force? The majority have cut and run, I turned fifteen over to the police along with names and known residences of the remainder that had left. Coil himself seems to have been dealt with."

"Wait," Miss Militia interjects, green energy surging just out of sight on her belt, "how many mercenaries did Coil _have_?"

"About 150."

Silence descends on the table for a moment before Laserdream speaks up. "Those snipers and rocket teams… they were Coil's?"

You nod. "On my sweep of his base yesterday night I was able to go through some of his plans. What happened yesterday wasn't _one_ of his planned scenarios, and the man apparently created new plots as often as you or I breathe. What happened seemed like a number of different plans got stuck in a shredder and he grabbed a handful out and tried to to everything he read all at once, then the gangs took advantage."

Armsmaster stirs in his reinforced seat. "Do you have any ideas on what Coil was attempting to accomplish?"

"Ruling the Bay, one way or another." You hold up your hand and extend a finger. "He had plans for becoming Mayor," a second finger, "being appointed PRT director," and a third finger, "and of being a parahuman Warlord and taking the Bay by force."

A number of voices speak it, but Manpower's is the loudest. "He was crazy."

"Well yes, but no." You get a number of looks at that. "He's probably a sociopath, psychopath, whatever, I'm not a shrink. So he's _functionally_ crazy. He was completely capable of intricate, long-term planning, and in fact was in the process of stage-managing the return of the Merchants to a viable gang in order to keep things in the Bay off-kilter until he was ready."

"So this Ink guy…"

"And two Tinkers, one of which he's been supplying for a year," you add.

"..were Coil plants," the bandanna-clad woman finishes.

"Recruits would be a better description. I'm not sure exactly _how_, but he recruited them. Maybe there's some kind of villain-recruiting dating app that he swiped right on."

Templeton clears her throat. "So we don't need to worry about Coil. A fair amount of the Empire's strength is gone, and their healer doesn't seem interested in returning. Things are still dangerous, yes, but workable.

"Work is currently being done on both the North and South Ferry terminals, and the force bridge will be configured to allow rapid deployment to and between both locations. I have designs on connecting the remains of the destroyed East terminal once we can better gauge Lung's reaction."

Brandish waves a hand, "Backing up a bit, if you're going to have two or three smaller bases, would you want us to patrol or claim a more western area?"

"That would be wonderful if you were willing to, but I expected that would be asking too much too soon." Running a hand through her hair, the acting director pauses a moment. "I'm not looking for agreement with anything today, but if you have questions I can answer or even start researching, or issues you think we need to address, then fire away."

{1} Questions for Templeton

Brandish looks at you and gestures. You guess she wants you to ask first so it's less like a lawyer-cape attack? Beauty going before age?

"Are you getting any useful assistance from the other branches?" It's similar to what you asked her the previous day, but with others around and after she's been appointed director for a longer time.

Templeton manages a half-smile. "Actually, yes. I talked with Director Wilkins in New York; we will be providing 'training' for some of their newer squads. That should keep us staffed enough to work out of both north and south terminals as bases for now.

"Which reminds me, part of the conversation included Director Armstrong of Boston as well; both are on the lookout and will warn me if any gang members or notable capes go 'missing' so we can be forewarned. Accord's people have been seen doing something, so we may have visitors. I will let you know as soon as I know more."

Brandish asks the next question. "Are you expecting anyone else to actually sign on as an affiliate?"

Janice looks over to Miss Militia and Armsmaster. The latter shifts his armor slightly and speaks. "There are a half-dozen independent capes who we deal with on an irregular basis. Of those, four seem like they would be willing to accept at least the basics of affiliation. I do not have enough information about the last two."

Miss Militia takes up, "Parian is unlikely to accept, especially with the increased gang tension. I'm unsure if she'll even put on any shows for the foreseeable future. Sere… I haven't talked to them in over a week, but they tend to keep to themselves and may well join instead of taking 'just' affiliate status."

Laserdream actually cuts in, looking up from her phone. "How are the Wards going to be involved?" Ah, she must be relaying some of this to the younger group.

That causes Janice to give Armsmaster a look and huff a humorless laugh. "I'd like to keep them as far away as possible. Currently plans are to have them patrol 'claimed' areas and handle PR appearances. Protectorate capes will no longer do visibility patrols, they will be handled by Wards. We may also host one or two of the Wards teams from New York to assist in this; again it will be considered training for them."

On the way out you slip Templeton a note about having seen Shadow Stalker doing solo patrols with live heads and you hear her weary sigh as you walk out of the door.

You all make it obvious that you've left the meeting site in order to keep strange rumors of your abduction or the like from circulating. You'd handed out individual portkeys and you watch as each cape disappears before you're walking alone and ignoring the cameras pointing at you. After a few more steps you turn and sweep your hat from your head, bow, and dissolve into smoke.

You drop Weaver off at the same park as yesterday and then join up with New Wave, who have all gathered in the Pelhams' house again and are… vigorously debating. In fact they're vigorous enough you can hear them through the closed patio door.

Letting yourself in you sit and listen and it seems there are a couple of different items being 'debated'. The younger group is all in favor of taking the affiliate status and going all-in on taking the fight to the gangs. The older generation seems to agree with the affiliate status, but are not so sanguine about getting into a bunch of fights.

…and then Amy apparently dropped the bomb about wanting to be a combat-cape. _No one_ except Laserdream seems to like that idea. Even when she mentions the existence of that defensive ritual you did on Crystal (and she still doesn't mention she's had it done, the little sneak) there are huge objections. To be fair to the rest of the capes they're not objecting because Panacea brings them a fair amount of reflected fame, but because they don't see how she could turn her ability into something combat useful. You can almost taste Amy's irritation, and you're sure that as soon as she does a bit more work on her outfit there'll be a _demonstration_ going on, possibly involving grinding her relatives' faces into the dirt.

Nothing gets fully decided; Brandish is going to explore what's being offered with associate status, and there's some grumbling that the kids are going to plan to face off against their parents to try and force the issue of a splinter group. You have a sneaking suspicion that Laserdream will head said splinter group and will try to draw you in. Panacea however gets completely sidelined for the moment and looks grumpy about it.

You're checking your cape phone before bed and Templeton has sent you an email.

Warlock,

All three women you had as prisoners have either decided to join the Protectorate or at least break away from their previous gangs. To assist in this, we generally offer small physical changes that can be done by simple surgeries or similar methods. In this case all three would feel more comfortable if larger changes were made. While I am completely okay with contacting Quinn Calle to work out the particulars, I would like to ensure you'd take these cases in the first place. Please let me know if you are okay with this; if so I will push forward with Calle. If not I will need to try another avenue.

The two that haven't joined up have talked about aligning themselves with the PRT and creating a group of independents. As they would likely be on probation they wouldn't be 'true' independents, but the general idea stands. They were even talking about reaching out to other independents and/or rogues like Parian, Sere, or yourself. While I have my doubts you'd be interested in joining a group, I did want to float the idea by you. If such a group _does_ get formed, perhaps you could be available for them to bounce ideas off of, or in a mentor-type role?

Janice.

You send back an email with an affirmative about surgery for capes, although as always you reserve the right to refuse anyone for any reason. As for the second paragraph you don't commit, but you do say that you'd be willing to consider it, but once again you'd need to know the particular people involved.

In the morning you forward the email on to Crystal and Amy with a note to pass it on to Weaver. You note that if anyone wants changes to their appearance that you are totally willing to do so, but you would prefer if they would run any ideas they had past at least one of the other ladies first, or even better to have one or both of the others nearby when you do it for second opinions. You offer some anecdotes about what Sandralina wanted versus how it would have looked if you actually did it to illustrate why you're asking for that.

The gangs continue their… visible lurking on Wednesday, but school is back in session and normal services seem to have resumed. No one seems all that interested in classes though, so after some texting back and forth with Crystal and packing girls in like sardines into her car you end up hosting the lovely ladies of S Klub (minus Sarah once again) for lunch. Even with the additional chairs you had Aelfie grab you and your girlfriend exchange smirks when the entire group ends up sprawled across your bed at one point or another.

At other points you have one or more hanging over your shoulder as you cook. It's pretty simple stuff, but Savannah gives you a hard time about serving her 'grits', and sticks her fingers in her ears when you try to argue that it's polenta instead. Amazingly, pointing your whisk at her and telling her that if she continues to argue that you'll put her over your knee and spank her doesn't help in the slightest, but _does_ get a fair bit of catcalling from the other girls.

Your joking comment about spanking ends up sparking… well, something at least, as Savannah is the first to find a reason to 'squeak on past ya' as she rubs her butt against you, but she's far from the last. Yes, you live in a small apartment, but they end up swirling around you like they're on a merry-go-round.

After eating you move from the kitchen table to your couch and bed. You take the couch and end up with Karen and Sierra on it with you. The rest of the girls are sitting around Crystal like attendants swarming a queen. Soon-Yi was the one lucky enough to snatch up your pillow and you wonder if there'll be drool on it when you get it back as she hugs it to herself while blushing.

Crystal ends up telling tales of her fight with Hookwolf and some of the hunt for Uber and Leet. Sierra has put her head on your shoulder and is doing her best to discreetly feel your thigh muscles with her free hand while Karen gets a front-row seat to your cock bulging against your other leg. Her own hands are ever-so-slowly creeping from where they were sitting in her own lap over towards the thick outline in your jeans.

A clap rings out and the girls startle and look at your girlfriend. "James, honey, could you go get us some ice cream?"

Your eyebrow is threatening to escape your forehead with how high it rises, but you manage to extricate yourself from the girls and give everyone a good look at your… muscle definition… as you grab a jacket and flick a listening spell at your coffee table. You're barely to the street before your Lady drops the verbal bomb you've been waiting for.

"So, were none of you going to say anything about how hot James and I look when we fuck?"

The stone fucking silence drags on for almost a minute before you hear the bed shift and someone cough. Crystal roars in laughter and that apparently breaks the spell the girls were held under, as the Klub's voices overlap as they alternately apologize or rave about what they saw.

It's apparently unanimous that it was the hottest thing the girls have ever seen. Soon-Yi manages to break her normal silence with a pertinent question, though.

"How did you manage to… just _take_ all of that?"

There's an earthly chuckle from your girlfriend. "I didn't the first time. I was on my period and he managed to get me off with just his hands, right? Well, I was going to return the favor and pulled his dick out and just kind of freaked out real quietly for a minute. Luckily I was able to get the head in my mouth, so I mostly stroked it. Couple of days later when we finally did it there was _lots_ of lube involved." There's a cough, and you can almost hear the fabric of the truth stretching. "I really wanted to take him all the way in though, so I later had Amy do some work and make it so I stretch enough to take him completely."

"That's _totally_ cheating, girl." Savannah exclaims.

"I mean, yeah," Crystal retorts, "but I'd've been able to do it given time. I just got impatient because after the rest of the magic he does with his fingers and tongue I wanted the _whole_ thing." There's a snort and a pregnant pause, "Besides, Sarah supposedly took him all the way without any help."

Ah, the sex question was Fat Man, and this one was Little Boy. A one-two punch. This time the silence only hangs for a few moments before cries of 'I _knew_ it!' ring out. Then things go silent and you hear a sigh. Susan's voice is clear, though, with no hesitation. "Yes, she took him all the way, that's why she was barely able to walk the next morning." There's the sound of the bed shifting and she continues, "I got dragged into it and blew him, and the next morning managed to deepthroat him."

The '_whaaaaaat?'_ is pretty much unanimous from what you can tell. You take your time as you mosey towards the closest corner store.

Susan answers a couple of questions about being able to take you all in her throat before Crystal butts her way in again. "And when James and I had a threesome with her, she didn't take all of him but he's good about giving you just enough to not hurt, right?"

You'd guess the girls have exhausted all their surprise, because instead of shrieks or exclamations it's pretty quiet and you can hear the brunette's laugh easily. "Yeah, but _you_ weren't any help. You told him to fuck me, but he actually lubed me up first. And yeah, I took like three-quarters of him? maybe? and James was real good about not going too deep, but he seriously went right up to the line." She giggles, "I still get goosebumps thinking about it."

Even taking your time you've managed to get the ice cream and throw a preservation spell on it as you text Crystal. You're unsurprised when you're told to wait a bit, as the conversation is still in the gutter from what you can hear.

"Savannah, if you wiggle your ass at my man one more time I'll be tempted to let him smack it and see where it goes from there."

"Ah'd lahk to be able to walk, thanks," the southern girl responds with a bit of a twang.

"Fair enough," Crystal says smugly. "Anyhow, I wanted to go ahead and get it all out in the open, because I know all of you watched us. Best to be honest."

Sierra asks the question that you're sure others wanted to ask. "Is this just an open relationship or what? Who chooses?"

There's more bed noises, so you assume everyone's shifting around. "Like, just last week he and I discussed that we don't have an _open-open_ relationship, but we can decide on… guest stars… together. James is super laid-back about the threesome stuff though. He told me about Sarah and Susan the next day before we decided to start dating and we promised to be exclusive. And he has been, everything that's happened has been started by me once I realized that he was totally cool with letting me experiment…"

Discussion veers off into your defeet back on Valentine's Day and you're cleared to come back to your own apartment. Walking through the door you can feel every eye on you. Not that that's completely different from earlier, but there's an additional hunger in the way their eyes track you as you grab spoons. Skimming thoughts shows you in six separate fantasies, although Crystal and Susan's are pretty similar. Notably, while Savannah's still has her taking you anally, even in fantasy land you're going a lot slower and more gentle than when she imagined it last week. Karen, bless her vanilla little heart, is trying to figure out how footjobs work in her head and all that tells you is that you should never allow her feet anywhere in or around your crotchal region.

Converstation is a little stilted as it slowly starts back up, but soon enough you're all laughing and joking again. There are a _lot_ of speculative looks shot at both you and Crystal, though.

The ladies leave a bit before dinner, and once she's dropped them off Crystal uses the new destination you've put in her anklet portkey to hop back to the apartment and throw her arms around you. "Did you enjoy dangling the theoretical presence of my cock in front of the Klub, dear?"

Crystal gets set off into a fit of the giggles. "You spied on us, didn't you?"

Your look must explain everything, because she launches into a second set of giggles. "Oh man, they kept swinging between wanting it and being scared of it. Speaking of…."

Somehow her sexy sweet-talk ends up with you naked as the blonde cape coats your erect cock in clay and holds up a booklet for you to cast spells from. After making a master mould you have time to make one copy before it's patrol time with New Wave.

Lady Photon had spoken with Templeton and decided to patrol the border between Downtown and the Coast where the ABB and Empire have been... 'posturing with intent' is the description that was passed on. You point out that if word gets back to Kaiser he might be just a _little_ pissed at you still. The more experienced capes collectively shrug and decide to keep their eyes peeled a bit more than they already were.

With a bit of time to work before you patrol, you set everyone up with a charmed earring or ear-cuff using the _Transmissus_ charm notes you found last week. They're pretty basic for now, but you key them so that cape names work, as well as 'all' or 'everyone' for general broadcast, and 'flyers' and 'ground' to cover both levels.

Everyone also has an emergency portkey set to go off to the Pelham house in case of serious damage, unconsciousness, or verbal trigger. Amy is at your lair, but will be alerted if there's an issue (and of course Aelfie can provide assistance if needed). Shield necklaces are also handed out, then everyone deploys via a portkey.

The area that was chosen to drop in is a park in sight of the coast, right around where the basketball courts are. The sudden appearance of eight capes—seven in white, one in funereal black—causes dead silence to descend immediately.

"Flyers, in position," Lady Photon orders calmly, and moments later the four flying capes hover above you. You move out roughly south-west at a slow saunter for a bit, gang members and wannabes of both major groups scattering before you.

Once you've left the park and are heading down a street the flyers start to orbit, occasionally breaking off and paralleling down nearby streets for a time. After another mile or so everyone comes back and grabs a hand on a conjured hoop and you all drop back to the park where you started. It was a suggestion that Shielder had come up with; it ends up being a good one as there's a fight going on between some tattooed E88 thugs and green-and-red clad ABB. Flashbang is calling 'eyes clear' almost immediately and one of his orbs goes off in the middle of the fight, knocking everyone away and stunning them temporarily so that you can do so longer-term.

The PRT had obviously coordinated with the cops as well, and you only have to wait a few minutes before the BBPD pulls up and loads them all in. Lady Photon handles the paperwork while the flyers swoop around and you test out your smokejumping. The exact distance you could previously cover was an estimate, but you're pretty sure you can go at least twice as far as you could previously, still at the same screamingly-fast pace.

"So, Warlock, can you take people with you on the smoke-thingy like you can with the other stuff?" Glory Girl asks.

You pause. "I… actually have no idea. Originally I would have said no, but now that I've done it enough I might be able to."

"Well, what would happen if it doesn't work?"

"The most likely result is nothing. I suppose we could just explode into smoke never to reappear ever again." You flip a hand in a shrug.

"_Nice!_" Shielder interjects, then laughs when he hears sighs from his parents as he flies over them, "I call dibs."

Lady Photon cuts in as if on autopilot, "No casual nihilism at the dinner table, children." There's a pause as she parses what she just said and then sighs again. Manpower—of course—laughs.

After the pickup is completed you ground pounders take a portkey back to where you left off while the flyers slowly sweep the path back to you. It seems that your innovative tactics scared people as the previous small groups of gangers on street corners and the edges of alleys showing their colors are completely gone.

While waiting for the group of flyers to catch up Brandish steps close to where you're chatting with Manpower. "Did I hear correctly that you're dating Amy?"

You swing your mask towards her. "I have _been told_ I'm dating your daughter, yes."

Carol pounces on that. "You were told by who?"

"By Amy, of course," you say. "Now, before you try to lawyer me, Laserdream has informed me that Amy has previously been totally uninterested in relationships. I'm doing my best to let her 'date' a dude with a silver mask on his face and trying not to break her heart and have half the world try to kill me."

Manpower cuts in. "She's been spending time in your lair, though."

You shrug. "Yes, with Laserdream, and the last two days with Weaver. She likes getting dirty in my garden." You smirk internally at the simultaneous blinks from both capes. "It's a greenhouse, actually."

"Why do you have a—" "Wizard. Potions, right?" Carol and Neil talk over each other and you point a finger at the smaller figure when she gets it right.

"What else can your potions do?" she asks only somewhat suspiciously.

"Primarily healing. I can do blood-replenishment, generalized 'healing', bone-regrowth, that kind of thing. Main issue's that I can only do one healing at a time by myself, and I can't currently brew up a huge batches of anything, so I'm mostly experimenting. Amy helps by growing the plants." You pause, "And Weaver apparently helps by pollinating them and leaving spiders all up in the greenhouse. I'm waiting for a centipede around the right size to ride to show up any time now."

Glory Girl has appeared and is flying a loop around your group and talking to her father as Carol rubs her arms uncomfortably. "Doesn't that bother you?"

With a gesture you transfigure all of the trash piles on the street into close to a hundred ravens who swivel their heads and regard the three of you with dead eyes and a loud _kraa_. "Not particularly."

You untransfigure most of the birds but leave a couple to fly ahead and perch on things and croak ominously.

Neil is actually one of the things that gets perched on, and as the other three flying capes arrive and check in you explain to him and then the others that your birds aren't actually alive. "Seriously, if it got hit with something it'll turn back into whatever I make it from. So you'd have a fistful of garbage."

Everyone chuckles as he very carefully puts the transfigured bird down away from where it had perched on his head and pats it gently.

Now that everyone is back together with nothing new happening, you apparate ahead of the group while disillusioned to check for possible ambushes along your most likely route and find nothing obvious. When you arrive back in the middle of the group after announcing yourself though, everyone's head is on a swivel. "Problem?"

"We saw an ash pile."

You cast your mind sense out as far as you can push it and your finger comes up to point to an open window about half a block ahead. "He's there."

That was apparently loud enough for the cape to hear, as Oni Lee's mask appears in the window frozen as everyone's attention turns to him. You try to push into his mind if only to read his next move and…

…and find _so very little_.

In a normal cape they have a mind full of thoughts and feelings and desires with the shard feeding bits of information to them _in addition_ to their normal mental processes.

Oni Lee's mind is stomach-turningly quiet. Instead of a cacophony of things you need to sort through to actually read thoughts you can perceive the shard clumsily prodding parts of the brain to simulate something like a human being. Currently he's following orders, and you can watch as the dragon-masked cape's words play back like a looped music sample, echoing in the emptiness of Oni Lee's head. "Watch New Wave and this other cape. Do not attack them for now unless they attack you first. Do not draw attention to yourself."

You drop your arm and murmur, "To all, I'm tracking him. Please look away, or at least not _directly_ at him."

It's obvious the moment they all stop paying attention as the blip of his mind also appearing behind you in an alleyway as the first gutters out gives you a queasy feeling. "He's behind us and just watching. Let's continue moving and I'll have a raven watch him. I'll have it caw and attack him if he tries to attack us."

Lady Photon asks how you were able to detect the ABB cape but Manpower chimes in. "He had a human-detection spell back on campus, right Warlock?"

"Yes," you agree, "and I'd like to point out that I knew that something weird was going on because Oni Lee barely qualifies as _human_ anymore. Like I was getting a ghost return because he has the right shape but he doesn't have enough going on upstairs to really count."

Everyone is silent and tense as you continue the next few blocks and you keep a running tab on where the ABB cape teleports to. He finally seems to head back south and you follow via apparition and verify that he's heading towards the center of Asiatown.

When you return the group spreads out and starts moving more to the north and south but it appears that word has spread and not only do you not find anyone, but PRT reports from the on-duty commander and the patrols out and about mention that general gang members are fading back into houses or otherwise not being as visible as they have been for the past two days.

After reaching the end of the planned route Shielder swings down and claims the dibs he called on trying to smokejump. You look around at the faces and while Lady Photon looks mildly concerned no one says anything so you snag the flying cape and jump.

It… just works. You can tell that you're 'carrying' a passenger, but there's no way for you to drop him or separate during your jump. When you arrive you do toss the teenager into the air and he laughs and turns to you. "Holy shit!" he says softly checking to make sure his mom didn't hear, "That was super fast. Can you dodge between those cars on the way back?" You laugh back and hold out a hand.

When you arrive back in front of the group Eric is still smiling as he relays the feelings to the group. "It's like being on the fastest rollercoaster you've ever been on, but without feeling the wind. It's faster than any of us, even Crystal, but you can tell what's going on, and Warlock seems to be reacting to stuff all in time. The zig-zag doesn't jerk you around, you just kind of do it. It's _awesome._"

Glory Girl is the next to ask, and you take the opportunity to change things up and go through a chain-link fence and underneath a car. When you get back to the group she's wide-eyed and twitchy. She flies over and drapes herself on her mother. "I need to apologize to Ames for all the times she told me to slow down. It's not nearly as fun when you're not the one driving."

Even the normally dour Brandish has a smirk on her face as she pats her daughter's head. "I'm sure Amy will appreciate it."

Everyone else gets a turn to familiarize themselves with the process before you return to the Pelham house and Amy checks everyone over. She even takes the apology from Vicky with good grace before jumping on your back and demanding a ride. She _really_ should have expected your response of 'in front of your whole family?'. The adults seem to have expected it as well as they all laugh, even Flashbang. The kids groan but laugh at Amy as well as she slides to the ground and hides her face in mortification.

You pick your cape girlfriend back up and hold her to you as you wind through the trees in the backyard and she smiles at you before looking at her family and blushing again and making up some kind of excuse to leave the room.

During the chat with New Wave, Lady Photon and Brandish comment that they're leaning towards affiliating, primarily for the access to PRT teams and the ability to get confoam to restrain capes. They're further considering claiming part of the Captain's Hill area and perhaps part of the South Docks area.

Before you go Brandish hands you a pill bottle and leans in. "If you can do anything to make it easier for Mark to stay current on his pills it would be great." She swallows and her eyes slide away from you over to her husband where he's talking to Vicky and a returned Amy. "I would feel better knowing he's at the top of his game."

You return to your lair and both Amy and Crystal pop in a little later to give you kisses and chat a bit before you head off to bed. Amy has been chatting with Weaver, and both girls are firming up their decisions to partner together and try caping. Crystal has suddenly become mother-hennish and is making noises about joining up with the two of them, at least at first. Possibly in costume—Amy's going to have a mask and has come up with a way to tint her hair green using some kind of chlorophyll-based dye, and Crystal is considering raiding the trunk with Aelfie's help to become a witch, with a 'wand' to disguise her blasts. None of the three are quite sure about grouping up with Othala or Squealer at first, at least until they have some experience working as a smaller team.

You can see where this is going, though: they're going to try and make you part of this, and they'll start making noises about the two of you unmasking to each other.

"Look, just ask the question girls."

Amy sets her shoulders and bats her eyes at you. "I know you like being independent, but would you consider joining Weaver and I on a team?"

"Sure."

"It's just—uh, okay."

You laugh. "I'm willing to join a _team_ that makes decisions as a_ team_, and preferably allows solo action as well. I am _not_ willing to have a leader who makes all the decisions unless I have a hand in either picking that leader or a chance to be the leader myself."

Amy opens her mouth and then shuts it again with a thoughtful look on her face. "Yeah… okay I see what you're getting at. With just the three—"

"Or four!" Crystal offers.

"—of us that shouldn't be a problem. And if we work well as a team beforehand then maybe adding people on later wouldn't be a problem."

The two of you ignore Crystal calling for Aelfie to bring her robes and a pointed hat in the background.

"We'll have to get together, talk, and practice. If you feel good enough about it I may also unmask to her." You smirk at the widening of Amy's eyes, "Especially since I'm pretty sure I know who she is already."

Both Amy and Crystal stop and stare at you. You stare back. "Who else has hair like that?"

Amy groans and smacks her head on the table while Crystal prances in in her witch outfit riding a broom. "Abracadabra!"

You snatch the pencil she was using as a wand out of her hand. "Oh no, that's way too close to one of the worst spells you can cast. Let's not."

Since you're already holding her hand she grabs the other and flutters those baby blues at you. "Maybe you could work up a tattoo to let me do some of the things you do?"

That brings you up short. "No teleportation, but I could do maybe two or three spells. And it would involve _actually tattooing_ you." You lift her chin up with a finger when she slumps. "Magical tattoos. They wouldn't be visible until you use them, and they'd last… a couple of months? Not sure, it'd really depend."

You tow your flying girlfriend over to the table. "That's one of the problems I have with things—I could create 'capes' with judicious use of tattoos and rituals and enchanted items, but then that's all I'd end up doing, and that lack of action would kill me." You pause for a second. "Not that that's what you're asking me to do right now, but if I empower people it would need to be enforced by secrecy spells and only be a _very_ few people."

Crystal wraps her arms around you and Amy joins a moment later. "Oh, hells yes. If word got out you were a power granting Trump—because they'd never believe you were a wizard—we'd have the CUI burning the city down to get you."

Kissing both of your ladies you smile and turn to look at Amy better. "Weaver and I can unmask whenever, but I'm planning on doing a magic show on the Boardwalk tomorrow. I talked to Templeton and she's putting some words out so that hopefully people will show and have things seem normal."

"Ooh, what're you going to do, make the Rig disappear?"

"Seriously Ames? Janice would shoot me herself. Nah, I'm gonna give my origin story, and maybe a little story about why I decided to become a cape."

Amy looks at Crystal, who is laying with her head on your shoulder. "He's gonna make everything up, isn't he?"

"I can smell the bullshit from here."

"Screw both of you, and not in any of the fun ways."

Apparently the two girls also discussed the email you forwarded this morning as well, and Amy's already done some work on Weaver. All she mentions is fixing her eyes, but you skim her mind a bit and discover that Taylor desperately wanted some boobs, so some of your plantlife was sacrificed into biomatter to grow Weaver a cup size. Nothing magical, so her breasts aren't going to turn colors or anything.

Amy has a list as well, but it's very different than it would have been if she was asked last year, or even the beginning of last month. She asks for some firming and tightening, getting rid of stretch marks from where her breasts grew suddenly during puberty, things like that, but one of the main requests (and one you reject) is to have her pubic hair grow in the shape of your symbol. You're willing to _charm_ it that was temporarily, but that's a little too… it's just a bit much, like she's trying to one-up the smut she writes about the two of you.

Somehow fixing her up—which you could accomplish with a flick of your wand and a few minutes—turns into her naked on your main table as you and Crystal poke at the pale, beautiful flesh and talk about her like she's a piece of meat. It's a good thing the table is charmed, otherwise the wood finish would never recover, as dripping wet as she is.

While you're all still talking (and Crystal is explaining the vibrator she made earlier to a panting Amy), you feel the intruder wards you set on Coil's base go off. You'd set them so that you'd be warned if anyone entered the hidden entrances, but _before_ they'd pass through the gates and doors to the base proper. Feels like three humans and three animals—so the Undersiders minus one, you'd assume. Do you do anything?

{3} Undersider inside-ers

They're still making occasional comments half an hour later while you finish up the changes to Amy and the wards ping you from Coil's base. When you explain what your sigh is for and make a 'get off my lawn' comment Amy proposes an idea.

…a _horrible_ idea.

A few minutes later the Undersiders (minus Grue) are lingering near one of the gates when you kick the door open from the inside and stomp out in boxer shorts and a stained wifebeater, your potbelly stretching the material. Your half-full forty-ounce of Olde English gets frothy as you bring your hand up to point unsteadily at them. "Whaddaya want, you fucks?"

Bitch (and dogs) jerk and orient on you due to the volume and you hear a soft _snerk_ from Regent. It actually takes Tattletale a moment as she scans you and you push into her head to get a better handle on what she's seeing.

Wow, you are pissing her _right_ the hell off. As with Coil, her shard pumps information into her head rather than just snippets of feelings. Your skill at false seemings is apparently pretty damn good, as Shardlock Holmes is telling her that you are, indeed, a white-trash hick who just wants them off your lawn. Her actual brain knows there's no way in hell, but the shard insists—_insists_—that it is indeed the case, and is giving her a headache just pushing back against it.

"Hey Tats, I said I'd be your Coil, baby, but I didn't mean to show up like this." You let out a ferocious belch that echoes off the walls and would probably peel the paint if there was any. "I mean, I'm down if you are." You thrust your hips in the least seductive manner on earth as your everything jiggles.

Regent has started openly laughing when a shouted "_Cleetus!_ Where'd the hell you go, daddy?" comes from the open door and a heavily-pregnant Panacea waddles out in a robe with her hair in curlers.

_They're poking fun at you_ floats through Lisa's mind before the shard adds _mocking you. _

_Making you look _stupid_._

Regent leans against the wall and wheezes laughing.

The poison whispered into Tattletale's mind makes her see red and she flicks her fingers at Bitch. A whistle and pointed fingers from the canine cape and her three dogs turn to charge you even as Tattletale herself begins to pull something gun-like from a waist pack.

Your _oppugno_ jinx makes the concrete tigers you had previously transfigured target the dogs, Bitch and Regent get hit with _orbis_ jinxes, and Tattletale gets hit with an _expelliarmus_ and stuck to the wall.

The pack of tigers have pinned Bitch's monster dogs and Amy walks over to disable their meat suits. She goes to touch the closest flank when she stumbles, putting her arm in range of snapping jaws.

"Ow," Amy mutters, looking at the arm that's trapped between jagged teeth before they wither away showing red welts on her arm.

Regent's reaction is a _lot_ louder through the conjunctivitis curse to his mask-covered face and the stinging spell that hits his neck.

"Bitch, get your dogs to stand down or I'll simply remove their heads. Regent, twitch someone's muscles again and I'll snap one of yours."

You push deeper into Lisa's mind. She looted everything she could get her hands on and has been contacted by Accord—well, one of his Ambassadors—and told that if information wasn't gathered about Coil's whereabouts that she will feel Accord's ire turned upon her.

"What did I tell you two days ago? Do you seriously believe that just because I joke about things that I am _actually_ a fool?"

Tattletale looks at you and her shard feeds her exactly the kind of information you're projecting with your false-seeming. _Drunk, slovenly, easily-manipulated, stage magic powers_. She's smart enough to realize that she's not going to get useful information from you and her eyes track Amy instead. _Not actually pregnant, attracted to Warlock, sexually submissive, previously suici—_

Your snapping fingers in her line of sight cuts her shard's puerile line of thought off. A conjured screen gives you a bit of privacy. "Let's use our words this time."

The purple-clad cape pauses a moment and takes a deep breath, then seems irritated when your eyes don't even flicker towards her chest. "Coil owed me money, so I'm trying to collect."

"Bzzt. How's life on Accord's shitlist? I told you to watch where you took the money from."

Her mouth tightens, "How did you—you were watching."

"I was watching. Look, I totally get being in it for the money and bitches, but it's a _really_ bad time to be villains in the Bay. If your brain tumor is chapping your ass enough that you want to start a fight, can I suggest doing it somewhere else?

The frustration that has welled up inside her finally breaks. "Why did you do this anyway? Why destroy two of the gangs and destabilize everything?" Her eyes flicker and her shard and brain collaborate on a hypothesis. "You want to control Brockton's underworld yourself. You started with the weakest known gang and moved on to Coil when you found he was looking into Merchant stash houses."

"Not at all. Coil considered himself above the petty little rules that most capes follow; he tried to spy on Laserdream's boyfriend thinking he was me. I'm not, but I did have security there for that very reason." You create a chair and sit back, putting an ankle on your knee and roll one wrist. "Turns out that among his extensive mercenary group he had surveillance specialists watching a number of capes here in the city. Including you."

She scoffs and you rattle off her apartment address and the location of the audio tap. You also mention the team who was tasked to track her down if she ever tried rabbiting. It's probably unhealthy to enjoy her increasing paleness but you do anyhow.

You stop when Amy peeks around the screen and tells you the baby's kicking. You laugh and dispel your creations, then bodybind everyone together. Sticking conjured business cards on their foreheads you loom over the three humans and three dogs. "I left contact information on the cards—it's through my lawyer. If Grue's still hurt from last week I'll heal him this time, but he'll have to deal with me talking to him while I do it. I'm also willing to speak with Accord's people, if only to keep him from trying to spread to Brockton." You pause and look them over, noting that all three dogs have been completely healed of old wounds. "Let me make a suggestion—leave me and mine the hell alone, and I'm happy to do the same." You turn the cards into portkeys and send them off to right in front of their base.

With a clap you shut the base door and transfigure it into smooth, featureless wall. Amy waddles up next to you and nuzzles your side as your bellies make a face-to-face kiss impossible. "That was fun."

You frown at her and dispel your transfigurations with a wave. "You got bit by a monster dog, Amy. I almost took off Regent's friggin' head when he did that shit."

Behind you, Laserdream flies in from where she had hid using Aelfie's house-elf magics. "Yeah, they almost all got it when that happened."

You apparate everyone to the lair and throw yourself onto the bed. "Confession time, discounting the white trash _accoutrements_ seeing Pregnacia was hot as hell."

There's a thump as Amy misses her hop onto the bed with a startled 'what?!' and Crystal almost runs into one of the bedposts while flying and laughing. You come close to hurting _yourself _laughing as the short healer scrambles onto the bed with a flaming face and swats you on the belly a couple of times.

Crystal manages to steer correctly and flops down in between the two of you and pulls you both down to lay on her breasts. You and Amy make faces at each other across the distance of Crystal's chest until the girl smashes your faces together and you all roll around in a pile. Amy ends up on the bottom on her belly with you laying over her and Crystal's lips by her ear. "It'd be appropriate for the mistress to be heavy with her master's child, wouldn't it?" Amy moans and rocks against something—Crystal's fingers you presume—as the older girl continues. "Taking his seed and nursing his sons at her breasts."

Amy comes, pawing at the bed before going liquid and limp. After a minute of cuddling she pokes Crystal in the nose. "Hot, but I'll keep it as a fantasy for now." She kisses you both and rolls out of bed to head back to the Pelham house. "I'll bring Weaver by tomorrow after school."

After the two of you are alone you raise an eyebrow. "Pregnancy play before she's even lost her virginity?"

Crystal laughs as the two of you start stripping off clothes. "I know her computer password. You should see the stories she _hasn't_ posted to her capefixxx account yet. How do you feel about being called Daddy?"

"Eh…"

"Fair enough." She extends a leg towards you and you start with kisses on her toes. "Come and lay with me, my lord."


	45. Week 7, Thu-Fri

By Thursday things haven't completely settled down, but the obvious gang presence has stopped. A message from Templeton to both you and New Wave informs you that a fight had broken out between the ABB and Empire overnight with no cape arrests but a number of ABB members in the hospital and jail. You ask Aelfie to check out Somer's Rock, but any meeting that might have been occurring seems to no longer be happening.

Amy shows up with Weaver as expected and almost marches the taller figure up to where you're studying some books shortly after the high schools let out.

"—so I asked, and he said he's willing to be a team that acts like a team, not just one person making all the decisions. But I think it would be best if the three of us—four if Crys joins us—didn't need to worry about the whole mask thing."

You look up and cock your head at the two girls standing by the table. "Weaver, despite what she says there is no requirement to unmask to fellow capes." Reaching up you slip your mask off to reveal dusky skin with clock patterns moving across it. "Only do it if you feel—"

Amy pokes your nose and grows a gigantic zit on it. "Your _real_ face."

Sighing you tap your face and turn into Amy's twin. "As I was saying…"

Poke, zit.

A tap and you could be Thor's brother. "Mayhaps Amy.."

Poke,_ all the zits_

You put your own face on and raise an eyebrow at the healer. "Happy?"

Weaver whips her mask between you and Amy. "Wait, he's actually…."

"Yes, James Peverell, Crystal's boyfriend."

Taylor pulls her mask off and stares. "But you and Warlock were both at the cafe!"

You nod. "It's a thing I can do—really limited in time, you'll notice I didn't stick around for long. Anyhow, you'll need to get a portkey and some directions on how to use it."

"And the ritual," Amy cuts in.

"Oh no, first _you_ explain the ritual process, then _if_ Taylor agrees we'll schedule a time for it." You summon a simple silver band and start enchanting. "So I can enchant items. Amy's choker is one, as is Crystal's anklet. They have shields of various types as well as what's called a portkey—a way to teleport you and anyone that's touching it to a pre-programmed location. You'll get a portkey to here and to your house, Amy can teach you how to use it."

The longhaired girl dazedly sits down next to you and squints at what you're doing.

You turn to Amy, "I thought you fixed her eyes?"

Amy sighs. "I had to change her back when she put the mask on, the lenses are prescription."

You summon the mask from Taylor's numb fingers and change the lenses to resemble yours. "Fix Taylor's eyes and I'll fix the mask."

A moment of work has everything correct and you hand it back to the girl. She turns her attention to you, no longer squinting and then looks over to Amy. "So you're dating Crystal, but Warlock is dating Amy?"

Amy walks over and kisses you. "Crystal and I are sharing him. It's a little complicated." She takes the anklet and twirls it around a finger. "Same triggers as mine?"

"Yes."

"Okay!" She snags Taylor's hand and tows her away, a cloud of flustered confusion in her wake. "Let us know when you head to the Boardwalk!"

Crystal shows up a bit later and gets filled in, then you round the girls up and explain in general terms what you're going to be doing. Amy changes into her 'Flora' guise, which includes a mask that looks like creeping ivy and her hair gets changed to a shimmering green shade. Crystal is going as herself and will be escorting the other two capes. Taylor is still eyeing you a bit warily, but poking in her head does reassure you that both Amy and Crystal have made it very clear that your relationship triangle thing has no bearing on the cape stuff.

When you're ready you drop the ladies off in an alleyway near where you plan on doing the show. The three capes walk down to the spot you've picked, an alcove that used to be a building that had burned down years ago and was just paved over to create a miniature park. Weaver snags some insect life and with Flora's discreet help to change some colorations on bugs a living, moving sign is set up giving a countdown to the magic show.

A pretty decent crowd has gathered by the time the bug clock counts down its final few seconds. There are even a group of children cheering out loud. "Three, two, one, go!"

When nothing happens immediately everyone shuffles restlessly and looks around. At the ten-second mark you throw your arms over Crystal and Flora's shoulders and your magically-enhanced voice asks, "So what's everyone standing here for?"

The ladies, being in on the joke, 'throw' you into the center of the alcove and you burst into smoke as you hit the ground and reform standing upright with your arms held out. "Welcome everyone! It's storytelling time with Warlock! Let me get into my story robes first and we'll get started."

You fling your hat in the direction of the children where it splits into smaller copies that settle on each child's head, then spin and remove your duster, holding it before you. You are quite possibly naked once the coat comes off, but no one can tell as your entire body except for the mask is pixelated.

Someone wolf whistles and you pause and scan the crowd before a shapely female leg extends past the pixelated part. A 'whoo-hoo!' gets a hairy man's leg sticking out in the opposite direction. They pull back in and you give the duster a sharp shake and dark clouds of smoke billow up concealing you. When they clear you're wearing your druid robes.

"Now, I was born about a thousand years ago…." You pause at the gasps. "Yes, yes, horrible decision, wifi hadn't been invented yet. Bad times all around. _Anyhow_…"

You spin a tale right out of Jack and the Beanstalk—your mother sends you to sell a cow and buy food and you return with magic beans. Flora helps with the beanstalk, making it grow as you pretend to climb it and explore the giant's castle. When you find the goose that lays the golden eggs you continue.

"…so I was gonna take the goose. I mean, it laid _golden eggs_. Can you imagine how cool the omelettes look? I reached out to grab the goose and.."

What ensues is a slapfight between you and a goose that leaves you lying on the ground in front of Laserdream as all of the giant-sized utensils and things fade away.

"And my mom was standing there with her hands on her hips and said 'How long have you been doing magic, mister? I'm sending you off to magic school so you can learn how to use it responsibly." You hold up the goose that's now turned into a rubber chicken. "So I had to go to _school_."

The kids sitting in the first row are suddenly in desks facing the audience and you're sitting in the middle of them. They're wearing imitation Hogwarts uniforms with paisley piping. "You'd think magic school would be awesome, but you'd be wrong. A lot of it was just rules, rules, rules, and when we finally got to do stuff it was junk like turning hedgehogs into pincushions."

With a blur you're now the teacher, walking along the row. "Alright children, your wands are in your left pockets and your hedgehogs are on the right." You cross your arms and tut at them as they scramble to get the items out. Soon enough there are a dozen little snuffling beasts with wands held over them. You guide them through the 'spell' and there's a dozen pincushions laying on the table. "See? Super helpful if you forgot your pincushion but remembered your hedgehog, but not what I wanted to learn." With a wave the kids are back where they were, but still in their robes.

"But my mom would be mad if I flunked out of school, so I decided to buckle down and learn. Some of it ended up being useful. For example, anyone's mother ever told them that the backs of your ears were dirty enough to grow potatoes? Hands up if you've heard that."

You wander over to a teenager with his hands up and your hand shoots out to his ear. A huge dirt-covered potato is pulled out and you hold it with two fingers. "Gross, dude." You toss it at him and turn away and it bursts into a localized rainshower that washes and dries the kid in a moment.

"And I did good in a lot of my classes, but sometimes I just had problems with the spells. Like color-changing spells. You'd think it'd be easy, but I'd go to change someone's shirt blue and there'd be issues. I think I finally mastered it, though. Watch!" You point at a woman with a white shirt, "Bippity boppity bl-achoo!"

There's a comical series of noises and when the smoke clears half the crowd's skin is blue, and the other half's clothes are. You survey the damage and rock back and forth with your hands on your hips. "Looks like I blue it again, huh." You clap your hands. "Never fear, I'll clean it up. See, I learned another spell in school—spider to scrub brush." Out of a manhole that didn't exist a moment ago a gigantic, bright yellow spider appears with scrub brushes for legs. There's a bunch of people yelling 'No!' so you stop. "Oh come on people. No one ever wants the spiders, they always want the _Fantasia_ thing. Now I've gotta pay royalties." You snap and the spider comes apart into a bunch of mops and buckets that twirl their way through the crowd trailing magical bubbles that clean as they go.

After everyone has been fixed the mops converge on you and throw all the water on you. You 'melt' into a puddle as the brooms do a song-and-dance number for the crowd. One of the brooms grows a mask like yours and starts tripping, breaking, and otherwise sabotaging all of its fellows until it's the only one left, doing a pirouette that resolves into you. "So now that everyone knows how I learned magic, I should probably finish out the show by putting my degree in applied magicoligy to the test and doing one of the classics." You crook a finger at Crystal. "Miss Laserdream, come on down and be my assistant, would you?"

Crystal flies over and poses in her New Wave outfit and waves at the crowd.

"Excellent. As I said, we'll be doing a classic, always a crowd pleaser—sawing a lady in half!"

"Wait, what? I don't think—"

While Crystal is waving her hands in negation you conjure a two-doored locker and spin her into it. "Alright, I'm going to need everyone's help to do this." You gesture to the box and run your hand along the middle. "Everyone will need to say the magic words, it's _wiffledy-waffledy-cut-her-in-haffledy_. Got it? Go!"

There's some confused mumbling, but everyone (mostly) gets it right and you throw open the top door to reveal a frowning Crystal. "Still with us? Good!" The bottom is thrown open too to reveal her foot tapping. With a nonchalant whistle you kick the bottom of the locker and it slides a couple of feet to the side leaving Crystal's torso suspended in the top and her legs off to the side, obviously not connected.

Both sides get sent on their own tour of the space, sometimes together and sometimes separate. You stack her feet on top of her head and make her tap-dance, flip her top half upside down, and have her grab her own legs. Finally though you stack everything back the way it's supposed to be and close the doors. "To put her back, we just have to say the same magic words in reverse. So it's gonna be '_ydelffah-ni-reh-tuc-ydelffaw-ydelffiw_'." You get a veritable sea of blank faces. "Oh c'mon, it's not that hard to say, right? On three, one, two, three!"

A bunch of mumbled words later you're tapping your own foot beneath your robes at the crowd. "That's the best you can do?" You throw your hands up and sigh dramatically. "Fine!"

You throw both doors open and Laserdream is scowling at you. The problem is her lower half, which is wearing a pair of heart-patterned boxers and has hairy legs. "Oh." You lift your robes to reveal Laserdream's legs in her white leotard, foot still tapping. "Oh _no._"

Slamming both doors shut you turn to the crowd as they hear Crystal's muffled complaints. "Well, _lovely_ job you lot did. Let's try this again, with feeling this time. 'ydelffah-ni-reh-tuc-ydelffaw-ydelffiw!'

A couple of people actually manage to reproduce sounds that vaguely approximate the correct reversed words and you flip open the bottom door to show Laserdream's legs to everyone's applause. Opening the top….

"Oh, Photon Mom is gonna be _so_ mad at me."

The top chamber is filled with geese. A dainty hand extends from somewhere inside the pile and points at you and a furious honking and an explosion of feathers happens.

About a minute later you stand, untouched and waving, holding your hands out and presenting a feather-covered Crystal, all put back together and angry. "And a round of applause for Laserdream!"

Crystal extends her hands towards you as if to throttle you and you take her by the arms and swing her around to the other side of you, leaving all the feathers in the shape of her body for a moment before they float to the ground.

Applause completed you thank everyone for coming and being a wonderful audience and give a 'Thank you, and goodnight!'. With a wave of your hand the feathers rise up and obscure you and when they dissolve into motes of light that resolve into fireflies you are nowhere to be found.

Weaver takes control of the fireflies and they spin and form patterns as people filter away. Before anyone leaves the area completely a flight of paper airplanes descend in front of every onlooker and presents them with a picture of the finale, except for the kids, who get pictures of them as they sat in 'class'. Each one is signed by you.

The girls head off down the Boardwalk and you join them about a block away. You're met almost immediately thereafter by a couple of the Wards—Clockblocker and Vista. The young capes are on their best behavior as Crystal handles the introductions. Vista takes your gallant hand kiss with good grace, but immediately starts talking to the obviously female capes.

Clockblocker refuses to shake your hand, instead crossing his arms and leaning his head back like he's trying to look down at you despite you being taller. "Warlock… I am your father!"

You bring your hands up to either side of your head. "Noooo! Wait, hold on," you stop and yank at one wrist until your hand pops off and you throw it onto the ground. "Noooooo!"

Both Wards are staring at the hand with undisguised curiosity. "How in the hel—heck?"

Holding your arm out you show you have both hands. "You mean you _can't_ regrow your hands?"

"No, can't say we can," the clock-clad cape says, only jolting slightly as the discarded hand gets up and floats in midair. "It'd be pretty handy, though."

The hand falls back to the ground and curls up like a dead bug. "You killed it with puns. I hope you're happy, I don't think corporal _pun_ishment is legal in this state."

Clockblocker takes the laughter of the other capes with good grace, but they're soon diverted back to their patrol schedule. Your group walks a bit farther and you're all about to portkey out when Weaver spots a snatch-and-grab from a nearby store and the would-be thief gets a mouthful of bugs before being tied down by an enlarged spider.

Crystal guides the new cape through her first arrest and dealing with the cops and then you all arrive back to the lair, with Weaver testing out the use of her own portkey.

After everyone changes and relaxes for a bit Taylor heads home and you present the girls with the mokeskin pouches that Aelfie has found.

Friday morning you receive another dispatch from the PRT. The remains of the Merchants and the Empire have banded together to fight Lung, who seems intent on expanding north towards the Boardwalk. No appreciable gain was made, but the two gangs working together is a worrying sign.

A little after noon you get a call from Quinn Calle. You've been in contact with him during the week in reference to the PRT's affiliate program, so you weren't really expecting a call.

"Warlock, I have calls from three _completely_ different groups and I'm really confused."

You let the silence stretch over the line for a moment before you ask who they are.

"The PRT has contacted me in reference to cosmetic alterations on two capes. They are asking if you can do facial reconstruction as well as voice changing."

You sit back in the lair and stretch out. "I can, and they're probably talking about Othala with the first thing. With some work I can likely fix whatever issue she has with her eye—missing or damaged."

"Should I put them on the schedule for next week, then?"

"Yeah, find a time and let me know where it'll be. Also, give them the spiel about eating extra so I have mass to work with and I'd like them to have an idea of what they'd like to look like. So who else is bothering you about me?"

"A _very pleasant_ person using the cape name Citrine called to schedule an in-person meeting. Details would need to be worked out, but your presence is _requested_ in Boston to meet with Accord." Quinn pauses and you hear him click his pen a couple of times. "Had a client who had dealings with Accord. I no longer have that client."

You mutter something about people taking up too much of your goddamn time. "Was the last Tattletale?"

"No, a male voice, called himself Grue. Said something about healing."

{1} Accord Meeting?

You get Citrine's contact information; it's not ideal, but meeting with Accord on his home turf would likely keep him calmer than dirty-ass, chaotic Brockton Bay. You fire off a politely-worded email even as you continue talking with Quinn.

"He had a run-in with—and I'm assuming here—Shadow Stalker. Who was being naughty and trying to kill people. I'll call him, but can I use your office to heal?"

"I'm billing you for the time you use the conference room. I'd be tempted to bill you for cleaning blood off of the leather but I'm sure you'd just repair everything and then charge me for it." You hear Quinn snort. "I'll call and make the arrangements, you want to do today?"

"Yeah, may as well get it done as soon as possible."

'As soon as possible' turns out to be less than an hour later. You're shown into the conference room and find both Grue—as expected—and Tattletale, which was decidedly not. The blonde is frowning and tense, but the man in the chair beside her is rigid with pain.

You hold a hand up as you walk in. "Tattletale, I'd like to apologize for the constant skits I seem to be doing when you're around, I just… I enjoy fucking with people; it brings joy to my heart. None of that today, though." You turn to Grue. "And you look worse off than I expected. I was going to talk beforehand, but let's do the needful first. Do I have your permission to heal you?"

At his assent you cast a diagnostic and suck air in through your teeth. "Did you get seen by a doctor? Even a back-alley sawbones?"

"Yeah, someone pulled the bolt and stitched me up, but I don't think it's healing right."

Hitting the table with some cleaning spells you shake your head. "There's a fragment of metal in the wound that's worked loose and fucking things up _and_ you've got an infection. Take your shirt off and get on the table."

Both Undersiders twitch at the direction and you sigh. "Look, I don't really care who you are and I'm not going to pry." You turn your mask towards the Thinker. "In fact, the reason I decided Coil had to go was specifically because he bugged someone's residence on the assumption that they were me. He crossed the cape/civilian line and pissed me off—and then after I looked into him I found that he did it regularly."

Slowly, both from reluctance and pain, the leather-clad villain strips his jacket and undershirt off and you pad the table as he climbs on and lays down. Tattletale's eyes are watching you as you flick your wand and peel back the bandages, revealing not only blood but a faintly yellow discharge.

"Alright, painkiller time." With a twitch of the wand Grue's shoulders relax and he breathes a bit easier. "Now I'm going to reopen the wound, pull the shard out and heal everything. It'll take a couple of seconds. No wiggling around."

As you said, the actual healing only takes a moment or two. Ensuring you've gotten all of the infection actually takes longer, if only because you have to run the diagnostic a second time to make sure it was taken care of. You gesture the cape back off the table and hit his motorcycle jacket with a repair spell while you're at it.

Taking a chair you lean back and cross your arms. "I'm sure you have questions. If we all promise to be on our best behavior I'm willing to give _some_ answers."

The two villains lean their heads together and you politely pretend not to listen in. Rather than feed Lisa false information with your Occlumency, you simply concentrate on _non-existence_. You're not sure if that helps, as the lack of anything about you from her shard only seems to make her more twitchy.

Finally though the green-eyed teenager leans on the table and eyes you, trying to will her power into working. "You said that you decided that Coil had to go. Can you elaborate?"

You nod your head a bit, it's a decent place to start. "Yeah, but let me be clear—trying to find out who I am is a bad idea." Flicking your hand as if to dismiss that comment you continue laying out a very vague outline of what Coil did—use stolen information from the PRT and assume your civilian identity, then send someone to plant listening devices.

"The person in question had their own security system in place, a home-brew thing that got a picture of the intruder. I was able to track the person down and found that they were one of Coil's mercenaries who had bugged _many_ capes' residences. And anyone else he wanted dirt on."

Grue's fists are clenching. "I assume there's more?"

"There's plenty more. Did you want to know that Coil had two pet Tinkers, Chariot and Trainwreck? Or maybe you'd like to know that the Undersiders were his favorites for starting the chaos that would have him either elected mayor or appointed as PRT commander." You point to the helmeted cape, "You, Regent, and Bitch were supposed to die. Tattletale would be addicted to drugs and kept as a Think-slave if possible."

"What—" Tattletale has closed her eyes and is concentrating hard. Her voice is hoarse. "—what was Coil's power?"

"Simulation of a timeline where he can make alternate choices. _Not_ precognition, as far as I can tell he didn't get to see the future, but he could go to a crossroads and simulate going east while walking west. He gets the knowledge of what lies east, but nothing he does while in the east actually occurs."

Her power may not work on you, but it _does_ work on taking what you've said and filling in gaps around it. As details slot into place she gets noticeably uncomfortable.

With a look to his colleague Grue takes over. "What did you want to speak with me about in the first place?"

"That continuing to be villains—even if you're 'merely' stealing from other villains—is probably a bad idea in the current climate. Unless you've gotten caught at some other point you've been pretty low-key, so rebranding as independents of some stripe should be doable."

The leather-clad cape rolls a shoulder, "And you'd be in a position to help us?"

You laugh. "Technically yes, but realistically if you actually want to do I could put in a word with Acting Director Templeton and see if she'd be willing to give you access to the affiliate program." Cocking your head you continue, "I'm not putting in a _good_ word, just a word. As it stands I'm in the middle of group stuff myself, so I'm neither looking to create another team nor looking to join one. If there was some specific equipment you needed, I would likely be willing to supply it cheaply assuming you actually go through with being on the up and up.

"There's also the option of joining the Protectorate itself—again, Templeton is Director at the moment and Piggot will not be back. I actually like Templeton quite a bit; she's apparently treated New Wave like actual human beings in the past where a lot of Piggot's people didn't. Like, for example, after I realized Shadow Stalker was shadow stalking on her own I let her know and she's currently sidelined while the gears of bureaucracy grind on for her." You turn back to Tattletale, "Now, I know you hit the account linked to Accord; I left some of the accounts alone because they'd be more trouble than they were worth, and others because of who they were linked to. Have you gotten anyone else on your ass?"

Her shoulders tense. "No." A brush of her mind tells you that's the truth, but now she's having second and third thoughts about every account she drained. She's also started putting information together about how Coil's power worked and how he may have used it on her in the past and doesn't like what she's getting.

You give both capes your phone and email address, and point out that your PHO handle is fairly well known. "I don't keep my cape phone on me all the time, so if you're thinking I'm a decent emergency backup you'll want to reconsider."

Tattletale slides you paper with both of their numbers and gets the faintest smile on her face, "You took all that money and you haven't given up your day job?"

"I was obviously a man of leisure before this; it's the middle of the day and I'm not at work. I just don't feel like dressing like this all the time. I prefer my smoking jacket and Playboy models."

Her smile turns a little sardonic and her eyes flick over you once more without gathering information about you. With an incline of the head she drops it.

You use the in-office phone to talk to Quinn and he brings in a copy of the affiliate information that the PRT had provided him. He answers a few of the capes' questions about the program before the Undersiders take their leave through a back door you never knew existed. You turn to look at your lawyer and he's already raised an eyebrow back and smirks. "Your crazy ass is one of the first I've ever had stroll into my _front_ office."

Taylor shows up at the lair without Amy (Winslow lets out about ten minutes before Arcadia for some reason) and visibly sets her shoulders before walking over to you.

"James, does this ritual stuff Amy talked about really require me to be naked?"

You snort and roll your head over to look at the furiously blushing teenager. "Okay wait, how exactly did she explain this to you?"

One explanation later and you're conjuring a mannequin as a visual aide. "While we decided to do the ritual nude, it was primarily for ease of rune painting. If you notice it _could_ be done with a robe but you'd need to get the front done while covering your breasts, then wear the robe backwards while the back is done." You shrug, "Ritual magic doesn't lend itself to body shyness, I'll be honest."

Taylor is staring at her hands and very pointedly not sneaking looks at you out of the corner of her eye. "I'm not used to that at all."

"Most people aren't, honestly." You hold up a finger as a thought occurs to you, "By the way, the ritual doesn't have to be just you and I, Amy or Crystal or both can be there. They won't get any boosts, but they can participate, which would lessen the power burden on us if that makes you more comfortable."

"Really?" The girl perks up at that a bit, "That makes me feel better—I mean, not that I thought you'd try anything!—but having someone else there would be good."

Amy arrives next and sits down in your lap to claim a kiss before asking what you were talking about. Crystal shows up as you're explaining that having more participants for a ritual lessens the total burden, and the girls could paint the runes on Taylor instead of you when she asks why you couldn't do a cleansing ritual to give the girl a taste of how it works.

…so you find yourself with the ladies in the middle of the ritual circle about ten minutes later. Both Amy and Crystal think you should do the general ritual, and you've snagged an even dozen robes so that you have spares if New Wave ever decides to do a group ritual.

With four participants you have the women form the triangle with you remaining in the center with the bowls in an inverted triangle. Taylor has been warned both about the bloodletting and not having a swarm inside the ritual space, but you hear her squeak as the flesh of your wrist parts nonetheless.

As you intone the first line of the ritual the charged feeling in the air is the same, but it brings with it feelings of _silence_ and _stillness_ that seem oddly out-of-place in an area which is already quiet and serene.

Nothing else appears amiss as you slowly continue the ritual. At the point where you've empowered the reagents and everyone is free to move you gesture both of the experienced ladies to take up stations near Taylor before triggering the cleanse.

Once again being in a cleansing ritual brings someone to tears. In this case, Taylor's crying isn't happy tears but with both cousins talking to her you feel like whatever issue has been uncovered will be worked through.

After a few minutes of talking, Amy breaks away and comes over to you, drawing you down into a closed-mouthed kiss. You take the time to ask after Taylor, and the healer assures you that she'll be fine. You gather Amy into an embrace and the two of you rock back and forth to an unheard melody as the other two ladies converse.

It takes almost ten minutes before they join you but Taylor's face, while blotchy from crying, seems at peace. Hugs go all around before you finish the ritual and the ladies drift off to change. It's about an hour later, while you're all out eating in a privacy-spelled booth when you bring up the odd difference when invoking the start of the ritual.

Taylor makes a noise and chews her slice of pizza quickly before she speaks. "That was when you said that first line? 'Kem-something'?"

"Yes…."

"I lost the ability to feel any bugs who weren't inside the circle when you did that, and it didn't start coming back until you said that last line, and even then it was really faint until I stepped out of the circle." She blinks at the look you give her. "Are you about to order a bunch of tests on me?"

You shrug one shoulder. "I'm certainly _thinking_ about it. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon."

Taylor huffs a bit. "Fine…"

Leaning back you look up and the ceiling and drawl, "Don't worry, I won't tie you to the bed unless you specifically request it." A smile spreads across your face at the squeak from across the table and the elbow that pokes your side.


	46. Sat, March 5

Since Taylor is now read-in to most things and her father is apparently neck-deep in scheduling work for a suddenly-busy union the three of you jog back to your apartment before the girls disappear to use the large shower in the lair. You've just started the water for your own when Aelfie deposits Amy next to you and pops away. The short girl grabs you in a hug before leaning back and wrinkling her nose. "Sweaty…"

"Thanks, Captain Obvious…"

That gets a stuck-out tongue as she whips her own dirt-stained shirt over her head and pulls her sports bra off and chucks it at you. She didn't expect you to wave your hand and render her completely nude as she makes an abortive attempt to cover her crotch before straightening her shoulders and posing for you like an exquisite statue.

You ruin her poise by kissing her soundly and banish your own clothes as you pick her up and carry your girlfriend towards the shower. Amy submits to being soaped up with a lack of embarrassment that you would have never believed even two weeks ago and cheerfully turns it back on you as she takes her soapy body and rubs it all over you to get you clean.

The two of you tumble out of the bathroom and grope each other blatantly as you dry off. Your mistress finally pushes you down to sit on the bed before kissing her way up your shaft and slowly taking the head in her mouth. Her eyes smile up at you as she places her hands behind her back and taps her bracelets together making them chime softly.

A thought ties all four bands together and her cheeks pink a bit as you thread your fingers through her hair and tug her forward. Keeping her eyes locked with yours she manages about a third of your length with no strain and you let her establish her own rhythm before you say a single word.

"_Vibrit._"

You can't hear the plug doing anything but the effects on Amy are obvious. You smile down at her as she services you with a laser focus, her eyes on you until you warn her of your impending release. In the last few seconds before you cum you increase the speed of the plug and charge your balls with magic.

Amy fares better with your load this time, swallowing fast and not spilling a drop before pulling back and starting to speak.

…and then the magical charge hits her and her eyes roll back and her hips buck. You dismiss the binds and pull her into your arms as she works through the initial wave (or two). Once she's merely giggly and slightly drunk you dress her in the clothes Aelfie had dropped off and hop over to meet up with the other two.

You foist Amy off on Taylor and snag Crystal for some runic experimentation. They've barely left the room en route to the greenhouse when you hear the taller girl yelp and cry 'you did _whaaaaat?'_

Today you want to concentrate on two major runic tasks: coming up with tattoos to give alternate Blaster options and seeing if you can alter the color of her existing powers.

It turns out the second job is pretty damn easy. A document by a witch named Antonia Josepha from Austria in the 1700s goes into exhaustive detail about how the color of spells can be tuned or changed by small flourishes during spellcasting _or_ by a runic script which alters the color of any 'spell which emanates from wand or person'. One large engraved quartz later and Crystal can choose between three different colors for her shield and blasts. A larger area—perhaps a thick bangle, or one enlarged, engraved, and shrunken again—could allow for a number of different colors.

Altering the _shape_ of spells from the normal 'blob of light' is discussed, but there isn't a lot of information about it. You make some notes on possible avenues of doing so, as many of the base runes would be the same as the color changing.

As for the Blaster set, you once again pull out some ink, although this time you bleed into the inkwell and use that when you construct a basic 'revolver' rune-set. You switch back to regular ink and add in the runic versions of three different spells in the three 'chambers' you marked out. Unfortunately three takes up the majority of the space on her back, and adding more to the front might get you two more spots, but the additional runes needed to handle switching between them would take up the rest of the torso and add an hour and a half to the drawing time. Still, you give her the ability to shoot a stunning spell, the knockback jinx, and the conjunctivitis curse. Along with being able to dial the power of her own blasts it seems like a decent loadout for testing. She sets her shields and blasts to silver and when she puts on robes and a mask like yours looks different enough from her New Wave look that you doubt people will connect the dots. You do let her know that the spells marked in the chambers are likely to fail after a dozen or so uses each, though.

That gets you to around lunchtime. As you all eat the younger girls propose a test patrol, as Taylor is new and Amy hasn't done an actual combat patrol ever. You point out that while you've patrolled with New Wave your normal MO is to sneak around like a ninja ('ninzard', Crystal insists, but is ignored) and then hit like the wrath of an angry god on something unsuspecting.

"Never fear!" Crystal booms from beside you, doing her best to sound faintly British, "Witchy Woman is here!"

The three of you exchange looks across the table. Taylor and Amy mouth the name before looking at each other and cracking up. You carefully refuse to look over at the pout you know is forming, even up to the point where you feel the stuck-out lip being mashed into the side of your head. "We can certainly work on the name, sweetheart."

"Grrr."

After lunch you ask the girls to get any gear they were going to use in order and head over to the south ferry terminal to both check up on Templeton and see if they have any suggestions on areas that might not be full of balls-to-the-wall cape fighting. You apparate nearby and smokejump in, getting a perfunctory check by the guards before they wave you in and point you to where Templeton's office has been moved to.

You make your way over to what was probably the business offices of the ferry company and is now going to be turned into a PRT base. What you see…

"Janice Friggin' Templeton, you are the PRT Director! _Why_ are you trying to lug your own goddamn desk up a flight of stairs?" Your hands are on your hips and you tap a foot for good measure.

Amusingly the woman actually flinches and looks around as a couple of officers come out of a nearby room. "We were just putting the cabinet down, ma'am!"

Janice sits down halfway up the stairs and lets the desk sit where she had gotten it to. "I was just getting started."

You walk up and shrink the remaining furniture and float it into various hands. "You could have just called up the most attractive and amazing cape in the Bay…"

"Armsmaster was busy."

You put a hand to your heart and topple over, shattering into a million shadowy pieces. "Damn, I think I got owned so hard it was a war crime." Looking at the officers who have almost fallen over laughing and back at a fiercely smirking Janice you tip your hat. "Well played, I give. Wanted to see if you had anyone that needed healing and also to see if you had a nice, easy patrol route."

Gathering all of her office supplies into her cupped hands, you follow the director up to her new office and put everything back to its original size. "I don't have any actual wounded at the moment, but if you're willing to I have some masonry on the outside facade that I'd like to have repaired. I can wait for the inside to be done, but I'm leery of a couple of the walls, and the inspectors made some absolutely ridiculous estimates of how long it'd take. I can't wait six goddamn months."

"Sure. You want to walk, or smokejump?"

She snorts, "Is that what you call it? We've been calling it smoking."

"I like my name better, winners don't use drugs. Or whatever."

Waving a hand at you she calls down and lets the front guards know that the two of you will be appearing and then takes your hand. When you reappear a second or two later she whirls around and stares at you. "How fucking fast were you going?!"

You cross your arms. "The PRT doesn't do speed enforcement so hush." You raise your voice as she stomps off, "You'd look cute in one of those parking enforcement scooter-things!"

The two of you tour the outside and you repair a couple of serious trouble spots, at least one of which looks like it came from Hookwolf using it as a scratching post. Afterwards she takes you into a situation room and you talk with a couple of the team leaders about good areas to run a patrol.

"So you've recruited two young girls? How old are you again? Were offers of candy involved?"

You laugh. "They asked _me_, actually. They were at the magic show the other day."

All of the PRT people around smirk when the show is mentioned, but one, a middle-aged guy with short red hair turns from where he's been updating a digital map. "How'd you manage to make that many copies of the pictures and then manage to float paper airplanes to each person?"

Clapping your hands above your head you spread them out and rainbow-colored letters spell out 'MAGIC'. You can hear the eyerolls around you as the guy snorts and pulls up a map of the docks/trainyard area.

"The nu-Merchants were pushed back to the far western sections of the Trainyard but have moved back in and have started showing back up near the Market and the northern parts of the Boardwalk. A patrol in that area would be helpful."

You nod. "We'll go on a stroll this evening and see if anything comes up." You get numbers for the northern dispatch and the contact information of the squad leader who'll be active up there this evening—who happens to be the guy talking, Marshall 'Red' Redmond.

After finishing up plans you head back to the lair and check in with Aelfie. She reports that 'dog-girl' got into a shouting fight with the rest of the Undersiders and left and that 'pretty boy', 'talky girl' and 'serious boy' were still around in their hideout, arguing but not being shouty about things. You have her watch the three in the lair, and more specifically Tattletale. If Cauldron is going to do anything you'd like the warning that they're in town. You had hit Bitch with a tracker the other day so you can find her later if required.

You also check your email, and Citrine has gotten back with you. While it's phrased as an option, it's obvious that 'Accord has a meeting time available for Tuesday at 13:00' isn't really asking if that works for you so much as demanding your attendance. Your actual presence will be required at a streetcorner fifteen minutes prior to the meeting time in Boston.

With that out of the way, you round the ladies up and sit everyone down for a bit of mind-clearing and mental magics. Both Crystal and Amy pick up from where they had left off, using a light trance to review memories and try picking out new details.

Taylor, though…

"I just can't _not_ sense all the bugs around!"

You blink at the girl siting across from you. "…but you did yesterday in the ritual, right?"

She pauses and thinks about it. "Yeah."

Starting a ritual in the circle generally cuts off all possibility of apparating into it… you cast an anti-apparition jinx on the black-haired girl and find that while it doesn't completely kill connections to bugs it impacts her range dramatically. An anti-portkey jinx prevents her from sensing new bugs as she moves around. You'd like to experiment more, but you do want to get the basics into Taylor so you move to the ritual circle and start her off before tagging Amy in to sit with her and snag Crystal.

Once again you find that anti-apparition seems to have a power-limiting effect, making her shield so weak that it breaks almost from breathing on it, and blasts that are easily half as powerful as she tries for, if not weaker. Her flight is also affected, being sluggish and almost failing her.

The anti-portkey jinx oddly prevents her from creating blasts or shields, but _doesn't_ prevent flight.

Later testing with Amy shows that anti-apparition doesn't seem to affect her at all, while anti-portkey kills her ability to do anything.

Thats… supposedly shards do everything via dimensional fuckery of one kind or another, but while you are aware that both apparition and portkeys involve dimensional stuff, you're not _quite_ sure why apparition seems to effect power and portkeys stop most power usages.

You have a patrol to do, though, so as much as you'd like to spend the rest of the night experimenting, you do have commitments.

The group outfits itself and you take a portkey to a fairly open rooftop near the Market. A series of _arresto momentum_ spells for the non-flyers and you're on the ground. All of you are outfitted with ear cuffs and Weaver has been put in charge of the team. After a while it will switch to Flora, and then possibly to you.

Weaver takes control of the nearby insects and starts scanning for people as you move in an zig-zag pattern roughly west. You all ignore individuals or groups of two in order to make things easier but she finds six people heading towards a brownstone about a mile from the old one that you hit more than a month ago.

Under the cover of shadows your group watches from a roof nearby as the six show up at the door and exchange words before being let inside. Weaver leans against the raised wall of the roof and concentrates on mapping out the people in the building opposite.

"Fifteen total. Most of them on the ground floor, three on the third floor, one on the second not moving much."

"Where are the three on the third floor?" Flora asks.

A stifled cough tells you you'll find the answer amusing, and indeed you do when Weaver chokes out, "Together, all on each other."

"Aww, someone's having a threesome!" Crystal exclaims softly.

Keeping your snickers to yourself you gather everyone together and hash out a plan. Additional probing by both bug and your supersensory charm shows no cameras or other detectors on the roof. The fourth floor was determined to be a small grow op with twenty or so plants so Flora creates a vine that some of Weaver's larger fliers manage to drag down to the grow.

The two capes remotely manipulate things—Flora turns the weed plants into soporific puff growers, then Weaver's bugs pick them up and bomb the second and third floors before loading back up and getting ready to tackle the first floor.

At that point you and Crystal head back to the ground and mark the front and back exits, just in case someone doesn't get knocked out fast enough. Once you're both in position you call a countdown and the great roach bomb begins.

One person was able to resist Flora's sedative and stumbles out of the back door and out into the night. At least until Crystal lines up a shot from above their head and drops them with a stunning spell.

From there you head around to the back and enter the bottom floor with Crystal and a set of bubble-head charms, while Flora and Weaver figure out how to unbar the roof access. By the time you've conjured restraints on everyone on the first floor they've figured it out and are working their way down, with Flora putting the cannabis back to the way it was for later evidence.

Unfortunately the loner on the second floor is in the middle of dying from an overdose; you save them but doubt they'll appreciate the entire fifteen seconds of work it took you.

The druidic duo meet you on the steps and look pretty awkward and grossed out. When you enquire why you just get two separate hands pointing to the champagne room, so you walk over and look in.

It takes a moment for you to get a full appreciation of the squalor of the sex den before you. The walls are smoke-stained yellow and the only thing that remotely resembles furniture are a couple of crusty, fungus-growing mattresses probably glued to the floor by… juices.

The centerpiece of this debauchery are the currently unconscious participants. Two male, one female, all three unwashed with trackmarks on their arms and legs and some pretty gnarly meth-face with scabs and acne both.

And then there's the fact that it smells like roasted unwashed ass _though your bubble-head charm._

You cast a couple of air-cleaning charms as a public service and conjure zip-ties before walking back and patting both younger capes on the shoulders. Crystal drifts over to look for herself as you guide them down the stairs and hand over your phone to call the PRT line. You have to remind 'Witchy-woman' to keep her friggin' mask on, as she's so unused to having one in the way that she keeps taking it off.

Red shows up with the PRT and they call in the BBPD to take the gang members after verifying there are no capes involved. When he asks the girls if you offered them candy, you're completely unsurprised when it's Flora who gets it first. She bursts out laughing and tells the officer that _she_ lured _you_ in with classic rock CDs. You just throw your hands up and claim that both of them are incorrigible.

After paperwork—although much reduced, thank Janice—you continue your sweep but only end up finding about ten total Merchants as you complete your planned patrol route. Weaver manages to sync her bugs' senses up enough that she can detect drugs she knows, so tracking people with weed or meth does help as the second group of four is trying to ransack what looks like an impromptu Tinker shed, or at least one that Trainwreck uses, as it's pretty crude. You're not sure if the harpoon-launcher looking thing is something that the Tinker worked on and decided not to use, or if it was just version one and he has a _better_ one now.

In any case you finish up with close to two dozen arrests and head back to the lair. In order to keep Taylor's caping a secret she heads home almost immediately, but the four of you will replay the night in the pensieve the next day for review.

Almost as soon as Taylor leaves the three of you end up in the shower spending quite a bit of time getting both clean and dirty before moving to the bed.

After you all dry off and pile into bed Amy hops back off before pulling a bag out from underneath. She pulls out the zoun clay copy that Crystal had made as well as a bottle of what looks like olive oil but is labeled in Amy's handwriting as lube.

The curvy brunette sits back on her haunches and looks you right in the eye. "I know you're taking things slow with me and I appreciate it. _Buuuuut_…" Reaching out she flips her cousin over on her back and presses the magical cock to Crystal's pelvis. With a word it sticks there and she reaches over to the lube and drizzles a bit on top. Instead of running in tracks it slowly spreads over the entire surface. "I made the lube myself out of olive oil; it's super slick but doesn't really run, it clings."

You notice Crystal hasn't moved and looking down at her you can tell that's not by choice. "I'm gonna let her do whatever she wants to you when you finally let her go."

Throwing a leg over the prone girl Amy spreads herself for you, showing how dripping wet she is before sliding the head inside her. "I'm the mistress and I'm showing that I'm capable of pleasing my master, she should be happy." Meeting your eyes again she begins to rock down, swinging her hips to music only she can hear but you can feel the rhythm of.

A thought sparks in your head and you hold a hand out and silently summon the book you found a few weeks ago. You don't really want to turn your attention away from the erotic show, but you'd marked the spell in question so it the work of a moment to verify the words. "Let her speak."

Quirking an eyebrow at you the biokinetic leans forward and kisses her cousin on the lips before leaning back and showing you she's taken another inch.

Crystal shows that she's verbal almost immediately. "I'm going to find a way to close your pussy up for a month, Amelia!"

You laugh and cast a sensory link spell, mapping the sensations from the clay cock to Crystal's clit. The effect is immediate and Crystal's complaining turns into moans.

With a wicked little smile Amy slides herself up and off the clay cock for a moment, hanging her breasts in the blonde's face. "Do you want to fuck me, Crissy?"

A deep affirmative groan from Crystal ends as she sucks on Amy's puffy nipples. "_Please._"

Turning around Amy hovers over the cock facsimile reverse-cowgirl and gestures you around to get in between Crystal's legs. With a little lube she slicks up your iron-hard cock and places it at the entrance to Crystal's pussy. You look over Amy's shoulder to make sure your older girlfriend is okay. She is—Crystal's mind is a haze of bliss, although an undercurrent is already planning sexy retribution on Amy. "You ready, Crys?"

At Crystal's fervent "_yes_" you and Amy kiss as you thrust and she drops. The two of you immediately have to grab on to each other as Crystal bucks and screams, cumming around your cock. There's a resounding crack as Crystal's returned strength is used to spank her cousin and Amy mashes her lips harder against you as you stifle her cries in your kiss.

You start thrusting into your Lady and your mistress picks up the rhythm, the two of you bottoming out together. Crystal is a moaning, thrashing wreck as you pull away from Amy's soft lips and murmur the trigger words for both the buttplug and the dildo.

Now _both_ girls have descended into moaning wrecks. Amy throws her arms around your head and clings to you desperately as you assist her with hilting the fake cock inside her. Crystal mostly manages to claw at the bedsheets as she's assaulted by the feeling of you inside her and the dildo mystically connected to her clit.

"Cum in her," Amy manages to pant, her hot breath mingling with yours, "then in my mouth."

You speed up and the two of you launch Crystal into a howling orgasm in short order. You fire a heavy load into her and use magic to prolong it as you pull out and stand, painting Amy's breasts and face with your essence until she manages to wrap her lips around your cockhead. She shudders and trembles, grabbing at your hips to keep herself impaled. After nursing the last few shots she slides sideways off her cousin and curls on the bed trembling through aftershocks as you run your hands through her hair.

…until Crystal, clay cock still jutting from her pelvis, pins Amy under her. Even in her cum-drunk state the healer swallows nervously and extends her hands above her and spreads her legs submissively. "Be gentle, Mistress."

Crystal feeds the cock into her squirming cousin as she bites at her neck and murmurs into her ear. When she finally eases the last inch inside she pulls back and mutters the phrase to unstick it and lifts off with her flight, spinning around and positioning her pussy right over Amy's face. "My lord?"

You've been sitting back and stroking your cock as you watched your girlfriend take back control. "My lady?"

"Show her what she _won't_ be getting tonight. Give her an up-close view."

You laugh as you slide into her and send a rain of creampied cum onto Amy's gasping face. Before you've even started to pull out you feel a tongue poised to clean off your shaft. Taking it slow, your mistress does a fine job of removing every speck of white and spit-polishing before moving on to apologize to her cousin. You continue your thrusting and watch as Crystal alternately fucks Amy with the dildo and dips her head to flick her tongue over the shorter girl's slit.

In unspoken agreement all three of you decide to slow things down and what seemed like it was going to be sexually bullying Amy becomes the three of you making love to each other. Tipping everyone over onto their sides, Crystal pulls the dildo out and begins to feast on her cousin in earnest. You and Amy work to bring Crystal to a series of little orgasms before you release another load inside her.

After that the older girl uses her flight to flip Amy onto her back and queen her. You move around and start nibbling your way down Amy's thighs to her core. Using your tongue and fingers you bring the healer to the brink and back off twice while Crystal rides Amy's mouth. Finally though your girlfriend reaches back and runs her hand through your hair. "She's done an… adequate job I suppose. Let her cum."

You pull back long enough to snicker before you apply yourself more seriously, using your magical touch to turn the busty girl into a shivering, crying wreck. Crystal has dismounted and is curled around her, kissing her and running her hands through Amy's hair.

When you crawl up your mistress' body and kiss both of them you laugh yet again—you're all in need of another shower. Instead, you hit everyone with some skin-appropriate cleaning charms and you all settle down in a pile.


	47. Sun, Mar 6

You wake up in the morning because the wards ping you to tell you Taylor has arrived. You're all still covered by a sheet, but you conjure pajamas on the girls and some shorts for yourself before smokejumping out from the bottom of the pile of distaff flesh and in to the main room. Taylor is there looking somewhat lost. "Problem?"

She jumps when you reform into a person and shakes her head. "Ah, I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. I decided to see if anyone was up, but…"

You walk her over to the partition and point out the slumbering ladies on the bed. "You can join them and nap, or alternately," you affect a bombastic but quiet tone, "submit yourself to me for experimentation."

Taylor stays quiet for a moment before adding, "Or go work in the greenhouse?"

"Yeah," you laugh.

The tall girl shrugs. "I submit myself to you. Master," she says in a dull monotone. She's good, there's no blush and she keeps a straight face but you can feel her offloading her embarrassment into her swarm. You raise your eyebrows and smile slightly as that embarrassment leaks a bit and her cheeks heat. She lasts perhaps a minute before she turns away and hides her face in her hands and you throw an arm over her shoulder and give the skinny girl a side-armed hug as you chuckle.

Apparating both of you to your apartment, you sit her down at the table and start on breakfast. Taylor's a little confused—and, looking over at the bed where Amy knelt and blew you yesterday and apparently told her all about it—a little turned on. After starting the bacon and making the pancake batter and setting it aside to rest you sit across from her and meet her eyes. "So I'm assuming you've connected to all the bugs around, right?"

"Yes."

Deepening your legilimency connection you reach out and quiet the flow of information her shard gives her, like turning a spigot off. You manage to stop it completely without much in the way of effort, but Taylor goes pale and reaches out to hold your hand.

"They're gone, I can't—can't feel anything," she says, her voice lowering down to a whisper.

You pat her hand and release the hold slowly and have the insect Master give you a running description of what she feels as you do. In Taylor's case her range is the only thing affected, as she's always able to feel and monitor all of the bugs within the range she has.

Breaking off to start cooking, you see if you can balance doing other things while blocking or restricting Taylor's powers. It turns out that you can, but your multitasking mind-magics are a bit rusty and the first couple of your pancakes aren't golden brown and delicious, but more dark brown and crispy.

Eventually you manage to get things running a bit more smoothly, although you can't see being able to shut down more than one cape at a time like this if you are also expecting to either talk or use magic.

You stick most of the pancakes under a stasis spell for the other two and continue your experimentation as you and Taylor chat and eat. Casting the anti-apparition or anti-portkey spells _through_ the legilimency connection has a greater effect, with both spells cutting off her connections with bugs even when you summon a cricket and put it on Taylor's hand. As soon as you dispel the spell she can take it over.

Finally, you take a pen and sketch both of the runic versions of the spells on each hand. Both work to restrict her powers, but once she's in skin-contact she can control and sense bugs with the anti-apparition rune set. You'll need to test later, but given the reactions of the three capes you have to the spells you've been able to test, both seem to have some use.

By this time your girls have managed to wake and portkey over to the apartment. You and Amy are going to do a bit of mid-morning healing, so after wolfing down a couple of pancakes and some bacon she bestows kisses all around and heads back to the Pelham house to change. Crystal and Taylor are going to be meeting with Soon-Yi and Susan at the mall to walk around and chill.

Because she enjoyed it so much previously, you pull up to the Pelham house on your motorcycle about a half-hour later to pick the healer up. Neil comes out and you chat about the bike—thanks to Victor's stolen knowledge you actually know a thing or two—before Amy struts out and poses with her hands on her hips and tells you to give her a ride. You don't even manage to turn your head to quip before she boldly exclaims 'and yes, right in front of Uncle Neil!'. Unseen behind her Lady Photon is massaging her forehead with a wry smile on her face. "Warlock, we'd like you to come to the weekly meeting tomorrow evening if you can."

Amy doesn't _quite_ manage to keep her bold exterior going when she whirls around to stare at her aunt and quickly scurries to the motorcycle. You transfigure her robes into pants more suitable for riding and take off, both figuratively and once you've reached the end of the cul-de-sac, literally. As you head towards the hospital, Vicky actually flies up from nearby and you conjure a helmet so she can talk to you and Amy as she hangs on the back. The Alexandria package asks if you have other options besides strength and defense for empowerment.

"Like, a taser touch or a whachamacallit—Vulcan nerve pinch?—would be nice," she admits sheepishly. "I can't always find something to bend around people, punching them unconscious is hard without hurting them, and the gang members are like learning how to pick cuffs and break zip-ties. Knocking them out like you do would be perfect."

"They do make metal zip-ties," you offer.

"Riiight, I can imagine proposing that to mom. All that's gonna get is 'do you think we have metal zip-tie money, Victoria?'" she says in a pretty decent copy of Brandish's voice. Amy snickers and reaches back with one hand to pat her sister on the shoulder. You tell her you'll look into something and maybe discuss it at the meeting tomorrow.

You land in the parking lot of the hospital and the girls continue chatting for a minute or two while you conjure a platform and pose for the phones pointed in your direction.

Vicky heads off, apparently to hang out with her boyfriend, while you and Amy get stuck in to healing. Instead of the assembly-line you so frequently have at Brockton General, this time you travel from floor to floor and 'clean up' cases that the doctors are having issues with, including a few infections that hadn't been responding to conventional antibiotics. In that case both you and Amy talk with the physician afterwards and explain what wasn't working, as the doctor is writing a paper about the bacterial strain the patient had and trying to find non-powers-related ways to kill it if it crops up again.

Even with that digression you finish up a bit earlier than you expected, so the two of you ride the bike into the sky before portraying to the lair and brewing a potion that takes Flashbang's antidepressants and turns it into something that he can drink and will slowly feed him the prescribed amounts for six months. You'll pass it to Brandish at the New Wave meeting tomorrow.

Your 'what's up bb?' text to Templeton gets an emoji that looks completely done with your shit. She follows it up with a message that she has some gunshot sensors that Armsmaster has designed and would like you to deploy covertly this evening.

So you want me to slide them in places **:Warlock**

Like I'm sliding into your DMs? **:Warlock**

**Temp:** I'm swiping left but I can't unmatch you

**Temp:** but anyhow you have the ability to do it

**Temp:** better than anyone else here

Amy heads off to meet up with Savannah and the non-mall-shopping girls and you go to meet with your girlfriend. Taylor notices you approach of course, and nudges Crystal. Unfortunately Susan also happens to turn and see you walking up, so in the end the only person you surprise is Soon-Yi, who turns to see you posting 'seductively' behind her and almost jumps out of her skin with a loud squeak.

"Ladies! Find anything good?"

Chewing her lip and flicking her eyes over to your girlfriend, the petite Korean girl walks up and runs a trembling finger down your chest. "I-I just did."

You beam at her and kiss her hand which turns her into a blushing mess. Crystal offering her a golf clap doesn't seem to calm her down any. The girls talk about heading to another store and you offer Soon your arm which she takes after a another look over at Crystal.

The four of you wander off towards the other side of the mall when you feel a cape enter your detection radius coming out of one of the few pricy anchor stores that are left. You are unsurprised to see it's Lisa.

Lisa is _very_ surprised to see you however, so surprised that she drops one of her bags and goes deathly pale. You release Soon's arm and tell the others to continue on, shooting Crystal a set of rolled eyes and a headshake. Picking up Lisa's bag you hand it to her and probe her thoughts.

It wasn't _you_ that made you really—your false seeming was perfect. Instead, she read Crystal and Taylor, especially the latter, and extrapolated. Your patrol last night was fairly relaxed, but there were still postings about it on PHO that Warlock was out with three female capes. Lisa was able to read both capes and got the most from Taylor, who has new confidence in her stride and obviously trusted the two people she was walking between—you and Crystal. Unfortunately you can be as bland and normal as you want, but if a cape is walking like she trusts you with her safety there's something suspicious.

To be fair to Lisa she doesn't _know_ you're Warlock. She doesn't even know for sure you're a cape. But she knows that two of the four girls with you _were_ capes, one was Laserdream, and they both looked up to you. So you might not look like a Warlock, but you quack like one. Now she's afraid you're going to realize that _she_ realizes that _you _realize…

"Thanks," she says softly, doing her best to look like an innocent, doe-eyed teenage girl and pulling it off fairly well.

You put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, Lisa. It's fine."

Lisa—being Lisa—does the exact opposite of that, going rigid in your loose grasp. "How the fu—"

Shepherding her to a bench nearby you sit and face her, making sure to give her some space. Her eyes are flicking all around your body and there's a _lot_ running through her head. A major thread is her extrapolating how you're going to murder her and get away with it using your mysterious powers. "Seriously, relax. You're causing more problems by worrying and making a scene, I would have just ignored you otherwise."

She takes a deep breath but continues to study you. "This is why _he_ was so worried, you're completely unremarkable. I can't get anything from you, he must not have been able to either."

"Yeah, and it freaked him the hell out, just like it seems to be doing for you, which lead to him focusing on me and ended up getting the whole ball rolling downhill in the past week or so." You run a hand through your hair, the Thinker's eyes following you the entire time. "Lemme be frank, I'm totally down with a less gang-filled Bay but I don't have any master plans on how to accomplish that. I'm not coming up with schemes to take over anything from anyone—I mean, I didn't take over _his_ shit, I've shut it all down. I like being a wizard, having a tower, personal power, and everyone knows not to fuck with me. I don't want _bureaucracy_ and _minions_, that's bullshit. I also don't want to kill people, so stop looking like I'm jamming a gun up your nostrils and demanding your wallet."

Lisa's a bit more composed. "Okay. _Okay._" A non-shard thought flickers through her head. "I know I shouldn't ask and it's fine if you don't want to answer, but can you make other people unreadable like you?"

You raise an eyebrow. "And why _are_ you asking?"

"Because I can look at you and not get hung up on your actions." Part of Lisa just wants to _vent_ and the mysterious Warlock who could very well destroy her but just _didn't seem to care_ actually feels more right to talk to than Brian, who would worry over it, or Alec or Rachel, neither of whom would care. "Even your clothes look clean and there's nothing objectionable, but I look at people and see how often they pick their nose and scratch their ass and it just…" She leans forward and presses the heels of her hands against her eyes and you can see tension in her shoulders and back that look to have been there for a while.

"I'm… sorry?" you offer and push past the flood of shard-related information in her head that's starting to give her a headache. Everything from the past week—being hit by a rocket attack, Grue being shot by Shadow Stalker, Coil and now people wanting to kill her—has been adding up and reading the closeness and affection for you from Crystal just hit her with an emotional punch she wasn't ready for. It's something she can't have. She doesn't even have masturbation as an option and you have a girlfriend who is crazy in love with you?

You reach out and hush Lisa's shard a bit with legilimency. Not completely—it'd be obvious and you don't trust her _that_ much—but you dial the volume from a maxed-out 11 down to a more reasonable 5. "We can talk about that at some other point, because even if I can figure out a way to extend this, what're you expecting me to do, hand off anti-Thinker powers to every date you have?"

With a cut off mournful noise, Lisa does her best to look everywhere but at you and calms her breathing. It occurs to you that this isn't the Tattletale who had robbed Lung's casino, or the one who had taken over part of Brockton Bay. The Undersiders might have been together for almost nine months but they had never faced real opposition or problems until the last couple of weeks. This Lisa is a strange mixture of not hardened enough as a cape and hardened against her time being homeless.

Keeping you only in the corner of her eye she nods vaguely at you before standing. "Good talk, let's never do this again."

"Lisa," you murmur, also standing and cutting her off from just walking away. Peeling your sleeve back a bit to show the wand, you reach a hand out and make the needed gestures as you touch her shoulder. You can't completely get rid of her headache as some of it is directly shard-based and you're leery of touching it and hurting her, but you can certainly ease some of the pain. "There. Next time we talk let's do it in business casual, yeah?"

She flicks her eyes to you once again and gives you something more like a real smile. "I'd prefer that." She sets her shoulders and heads off in the opposite direction the girls had headed in. "Ta-ta, darling."

You let her get the last word in and dial her shard back up slowly so it doesn't overwhelm her. Casting your eyes around to make sure no one else was watching you go to catch up with your Lady and her ladies.

You meet back up with the ladies and find a moment to let Crystal know what happened. The long-time cape sighs but shrugs it off once you tell her that she left and won't be a bother. Instead she smirks and makes a little swirl with her finger and you turn around to see Taylor and Susan in identical plaid miniskirts and belly shirts. You give them a smile that gets one blush, but Crystal's soft wolf whistle actually gets both of them.

"So what blackmail does Crys have on you two to get you to dress up like that?"

Even through her light blush Susan manages a smirk. "Who says she needed to do anything?" Taylor just pouts and looks away and Susan takes the opportunity to open her mouth and stick her tongue out for you.

Soon-Yi joins the group in a tight pencil skirt and blouse combo that screams 'naughty librarian'. Glancing over at your girlfriend, you push into her mind and go back to admiring the beautiful ladies in front of you.

Crystal is getting a kick out of making the older girls show themselves to you by making little suggestions and comments and letting their attraction do most of the work. With Taylor she's not pushing the idea of you as much, but instead has convinced herself that she is making the recently-bullied girl more confident.

…sometimes your girlfriend is delusional. Awesome, but delusional.

Not too long after that you all head back to campus. Taylor gets introduced to the Klub in their dorm rooms and soon enough the girls are mostly ignoring you and talking about their high school experiences. You're amused when Sarah throws an arm over Taylor's shoulder. "I had a girl like Emma in school—mine was called Rachael—she was a bitch like that, preacher's daughter, all holier-than-thou when parents were around but catty as fuck when they weren't. Turns out she cheated on her boyfriend so he posted her secret social media accounts that had her talking racist shit about people and doing drugs. Guess who got sent home from college?"

Savannah also pulls out her guitar, but it gets taken away by Sierra after the third time she tries to sing 'Jolene', because she apparently only knows three songs and so just tries to make up extra stanzas to make up for it.

You smirk at the black girl as she hands you the guitar. "Anyway, here's Wonderwall."

She shakes her head at you sending her dreads flying, "Man, I will_ hit_ you."

"I bet you will in just a moment," you say. The grimace when she hears your southern accent is nothing compared to the look at the phrase 'badonkadonk'. It's a little hard to keep singing while being chased but you do your best while Savannah collapses to the floor in laughter.

After a rousing march around the room Sierra pounces on you, but you pass the instrument off and wrestle her around to your front and pin her against the wall. "You wanna go?"

Her blush is barely detectable but it's there. "You couldn't handle me, white boy," she taunts.

"I can _totally_ handle you," you snark back. A bit of grind against her and she bites her lip and pushes you away while muttering something soft about how you're 'fucking packing'. The look she shoots you over her shoulder after you let her down and she walks back to the group isn't aimed at your face in the slightest.

You, and the cape girls make it back to your apartment in the mid-afternoon and pop over to the lair for a bit more mind magic work. Taylor starts out needing magical assistance to clear her mind, but by the end of the session can manage it with a bit of preparation and a very quiet area.

Crystal and Amy are splitting their time between going over memories and using their enhanced recall to derive more detail from them and entering a magically-enhanced state of mindfulness and walking over to the windows and trying to maintain that state as they take in the increased informational load. Both are doing better, but can't _quite_ manage to keep it going while also carrying on a conversation or using their powers.

While working with Taylor you find she's a natural at splitting her attention—yes, the shard is part of it, but she grasps the basics quickly and manages to split her non-bug-senses in order to hold a conversation with you and navigate an obstacle course you transfigured at the same time. Allowing her to use her sensed bugs only increases her facility with it, of course, getting to the point where she can create a screen of no-see-ums that you throw beanbags through and she dodges while blindfolded and talking to Crystal and Amy.

The four of you have dinner—Danny is still working overtime and coming home late, so you make enough for Taylor to take home as leftovers for him—and the girls get together to do something as they shoo you out and tell you to go help Templeton.

Your text to her gets you a response to meet her at the North Ferry Station, so you smoke up there and get let in, sending Miss Militia a wave as you go. Templeton is actually finishing up a meeting, so you have to wait for a couple of minutes before the male Wards file out. They're all walking funny so you brush into their heads and find that to a man they are all harboring dirty thoughts of the new Director. Even Gallant, who is picturing Janice instructing Vicky on how to give a proper blowjob and using a riding crop on the blonde.

Allowing a bit of your real amusement to creep into your otherwise cool and collected false seeming you incline your head to the group. "Gentlemen."

Clockblocker—being the only one of the Wards present you've met—apparently gets to be the spokesman. "Warlock. Are you joining up?"

You do your best to put a hint of innuendo in your voice. "No, Janice called me for help. She said I was the only one with the ability to 'do it right'."

A wry voice comes from the open door. "Warlock, get that leather-clad ass in here right now."

Tipping your hat you move through the group, patting shoulders. "Ta, lads. I'll take her from here." You close the door behind you and feel the capes just stand in the hallway for a moment before slowly leaving.

Templeton gives you a flat stare as you sit and pins her hair back up. "_Must_ you rile up the boys?"

You put your feet up on the conference table. "I think you did an excellent job of that yourself. Did you see how they all walked out of here?"

Janice is too earthy to blush from that, but you pick up a fair amount of self-satisfaction in the fact that she was able to tighten the pants of the boys. You also see that she pulled a 'drop the hair and unbutton a few buttons' thing on them during the talk, but her buttons were redone before you walked in.

Continuing, you push in a little harder, "So were they getting the book thrown at them for something?"

"It's mostly an internal Wards matter, but let's just say that they were having problems treating a cape as a fellow cape because of preconceived notions."

Pointing a finger, you project a smile through your voice. "Looking down on Vista for being young, a girl, or both?"

"A girl."

You chuckle, "Want me to send in the girl power squad to beat them up? Or at least cover them in bees and thorns?"

Sitting back down she takes a deep drink from her 'World's Okayest PRT Director' mug. "You know, I called you here to be helpful, not to torment my kids."

You whistle a couple of bars of 'Hot for Teacher' as she pulls up a map on the projector with one hand and flicks you off with the other. Armsmaster comes in and you cut your teasing off and attempt to look professional.

The Tinker sets a small device down that looks like nothing more than a somewhat-flat microphone and gets a nod to start from the director. "Warlock, thank you for coming. Are you familiar with gunshot detection systems?"

"Not really, although I understand the general idea of how they work to triangulate gunfire"

Janice steps in. "That's all that is required for working knowledge in this case. We've noticed an uptick in guns actually used in the gang violence going on, whether because the capes are unwilling to expose themselves and they're relying on them or other factors. Armsmaster has created small microphone sensors to give us shot-spotting capability."

"As part of our normal patrols we will be setting up the majority of these sensors ourselves, but I would like a few placed in higher areas for better fidelity," Armsmaster continues. "In the future as we deal with expanding the coverage we may need your assistance again but I'm unwilling to ask our current flyers to do this as they're Wards."

You look over the map and see the dozen or so they want you to place. "So you're not going super deep into gang territory at the moment?"

The armored cape gives a minimal shake of the head. "No, we have calculated the locations to give insight into the worst of the hotspots taking into account the last two years of arrest data. With the sensors in place I can begin to expand outward as needed."

"And is this some kind of creeping surveillance-state panopticon recording bullshit that I'll come to regret assisting with?"

"No. While the detectors _are_ very sensitive, the software only picks up gunshot and gunshot-like sounds. They are not sensitive enough to record all sound and contain no video sensors. They do contain anti-tamper measures, however." There's a faint hint of embarrassment and you poke into the older cape's mind curiously.

You find that Armsy's _original_ idea was to pack a bewildering array of sensors into the package in an attempt to create a (supposedly benign) surveillance state. Dragon, ironically enough, was the one to put the kibosh on it as she used her access to Colin's lab and armor to point out everything he did that was illegal, from flouting OSHA regulations to abusing the stimulants he had created—drugs are drugs, right? Less than twenty-four hours of Big Momma watching him and he dropped all but the stated functions. It kinda makes you want to give the AI a hug.

Continuing on, you run a couple of tests to ensure that your movement options don't break the electronics, but since they're turned off everything works out okay. When all of that checks out the Tinker tells you he'll have all of the devices ready downstairs when you leave and departs, leaving you and Templeton alone again.

The older woman scratches at a cheek when you turn your mask back over to her. "So the Image department will likely be ready for you to… fiddle with the capes on Wednesday or so. I've already been briefed on the agreement your lawyer drafted, but I would like to mention to you directly that after the women have their 'cosmetic alterations'," she makes the air quotes as sarcastically as one can gesture, "that they will also be given new names and identities, so if you see someone resembling them out in the wild please do your best not to show that you recognize them."

"Understood, that's the way I would have done it anyway."

"Great. Now apparently you teamed up with _three_ new capes yesterday, two of which are a plant and insect controller?" At your nod she continues. "And another one of you, just female. Are you infectious?"

You clear your throat, "Not like that, but I'm given to believe that powers pass down to the next generation. Perhaps you'd like to _carry on_ a demonstration?"

Templeton smiles but ignores your comment. "If I can be honest, Squealer wouldn't fit in with the current Tinkers we have and Othala apparently has some kind of vaguely-requited love affair going on with someone that we're trying to work around. So neither of them are going to be part of the Protectorate proper, they'll effectively be independent capes with PRT contracts—Squealer is going to be doing vehicle modification and Othala will be assisting some of our fire teams and doing healing. They will be provided with a location for a base, but may ask to team up with you or something similar. Are you open to the idea if it comes up? If not I'd want to temper their expectations beforehand."

You place your hand of the mouthpiece of your mask and then roll your wrist out. "Yes, but."

"'Yes but' what?"

"It's not just my choice. Our team—and no, before you ask we don't have an actual team name yet—works well together because we're all friendly and we trust each other. It is completely possible that we could work them in but I don't make the decisions unilaterally, we make them collectively." You pause for a second. "Outside of actual combat, obviously."

Janice grins at you. "Oh come on, you don't sit down and have a pow-wow during a firefight?" Becoming a bit more serious she nods at you. "I didn't expect you to just give me a flat yes, so that's fine." Then she becomes _very_ serious, sitting up and leaning towards you. "On a final note with Purity. You can change her looks however she wants, but you are _not_ to change either child in any way at this time. There are paternity and custody issues galore. Purity knows this and claims she wasn't going to ask, but just in case you tell her no and if she complains even a little refer her to _me_."

You raise your eyebrows behind your mask. "Oof, Nazi daddy issues… Fair enough."

Standing and shaking your hand, Templeton gestures you towards the door. "You do know that you could bill us for the assistance with the shot detectors right? I mean, you're getting paid for the plastic surgery already…"

"_Cosmetic alteration_, Janice," you chide as you walk out. "And I live here so I'm willing to work with you on some things. If you decide to pull a Piggot on me I'll go into 'fuck-you-pay-me' mode or just stop cooperating."

Her laugh follows you out of the room. "If I turn into her, put me out of my misery!"

You find Armsmaster in what is probably a temporary Tinker lab. Both the older Tinker and Kid Win look to be assembling more detectors, but there's a sizable case with a dozen for you to emplace. The capes are zoning out and a skim of them tells you that they may have figured out Kid Win's Tinker speciality after Armsmaster mentioned that the Ward had really helped improve the data flow through a couple of the modules. Kid Win is actually about to fugue as his hands start swapping parts of their own accord and Armsmaster is barely holding himself from doing the same.

Yoinking the case, you fire a text off to Templeton so she doesn't find the entire place rendered for scrap and make your way to the various locations that Armsmaster had mapped out.

Amusingly, one of them is near the Undersider's base. You save that one for last and are putting it up on an old satellite tower when you spy an unassuming white van park a block away and a couple of gun-toting figures get out and slowly head towards the Redmond Welding building.

You call Aelfie to you and ask where Tattletale is. "She in there. Came back after she met you in the shop, acted worried and ate ice cream. Said she had headache and went to bed. Pretty boy is there too, dog-girl and serious-boy out."

"Is she actually asleep, Aelfie?"

The house-elf gives you a look. "Master Warlock, girl be hiding under the sheets with her phone doing lots of typing. She be pouting."

You have three guys with guns incoming **:Warlock**

Half a block away** :W**

You're about to call-bomb her to hopefully get her attention when she finally responds.

**Tattle:** I'll take care of them

**Tattle:** If they have a car, disable it

Disillusioning yourself, you smoke down to the van and check the diver's side. There is someone in there and they're listening to radio check-ins from the three doing the invasion. These obviously aren't just random mooks, they sound pretty professional. With a supersensory charm you can listen in and hear that they're about to breach the main doors so you wait until the driver's responded with an okay before stunning them and taking the radio. You give it a few seconds as you cast a _Sonorus_ on the microphone portion. You're not sure this will work but it's worth a try. Chatter makes it sound like they're getting close to the living quarters when you hit the transmit button and just scream into the mic.

Making sure the driver is also bound you smoke over to the Undersiders' lair and poke your head in. Tattletale and Regent's voices are audible and not raised in anger so you knock and call out in your best falsetto, "Housekeeping!"

Regent's laugh almost drowns out the sigh from Tattletale as you make your way deeper in. Rounding an industrial-sized lathe you see the three gunmen on the ground with zipted hands and the two Undersiders standing over them wearing their masks with regular clothes. You hit the intruders with _incarcerous_ spells and lean against a milling machine. "I was in the area helping out the PRT when I saw them heading in your direction. Left the driver tied up and unconscious about a block away."

Tattletale's eyes flick to you as she squats down and looks over one of the bodies, pulling off the balaclava. There's actually some blood from the ear with the earpiece. "This was one of Coil's…"

You step closer and create a light overhead. "Ah, Jason Pries. One of the Tattle-squad." Vanishing the ropes around his middle you dig through one of the pouches and pull out a couple of flashbangs and a tinker-tech smoke grenade, holding the latter up to what little light there is. "Fast-acting soporific, goes through spandex." A little more rooting finds specialized cuffs with bags that harden into immovable mittens. Just the thing to keep a Thinker with itchy fingers from fiddling with things.

Tattletale has slapped one of them awake and is doing an interesting interrogation by asking questions and answering them herself by reading their reaction. "So you weren't caught and turned over to the police. Why me, though?" She pauses and her eyes flick over the other two, then up to you. "They contacted Accord. He sponsored this." The guy goes to talk and she kicks him right in the jaw and knocks him out. You give a golf clap and get an exasperated eye-roll.

"I know you took money from that account, but didn't selling me out to him wipe your debt? Or most of it?"

"Wow, dick move Tats," Regent snarks, before turning to you. "And you 'just happened to be in the area', huh?"

You wave a hand. "Yes, I was installing some gunshot detectors for the PRT and saw the van. If I hadn't waited to install this one last I wouldn't have been here. Oh, by the way, don't use guns. Or get silencers. Or switch to paintball guns with capsaicin loads. Or…"

"I don't have enough to go on from them. Take me to the van," Tattletale cuts in. She looks at Regent. "Stay and watch them."

Once you're at the vehicle she rifles through both it and the driver's stuff. You take the time to peel back an eyelid and poke the driver's mind while you have the chance. Unfortunately while Lisa was right and some of Coil's leftovers went running to Accord, the Bostonian Thinker is _really good_ at security compartmentalization, so they don't have any useful juicy details on his organization.

When she's satisfied—not _happy_, but satisfied—you float the whole van along to sit it down outside the building.

Tattletale had called in Grue at some point and he's standing guard over the prisoners when you return. "Tats—"

"This lair isn't safe anymore, some of Coil's leftovers went running to Accord. My apartment likely also isn't safe. I don't think anyone else will try _tonight_, but the location has been sold off."

"Fuck. Did you try getting ahold of Bitch? I'll—"

"I'll rent a suite for the night and we'll find another place tomorrow." Grue nods and heads into the living section.

You hold a hand up. "What do you want done with the minions? I assume you don't need me here as part of your discussions."

The purple-clad villainess rubs a temple. "Drop them off with the PRT, or in the Bay, your choice. We're leaving." She looks at you and gives a grudging nod. "Thank you for the warning." She makes it sound like it's akin to pulling teeth, but there's actual positive emotion there, just buried underneath worry and irritation.

"I'm meeting with Accord on Tuesday, fill me in on anything else you come up with before then, okay?"

"I hope your mere existence gives him a goddamn migrane like you do to me."

You chuckle about that the entire time you're turning the gunmen over to the PRT all tied up with a bow.


	48. Mon, Mar 7

You get out of your math class Monday morning and spy Thunor trudging along across the courtyard looking despondent, his beard in disarray. Hurrying over and intercepting him he looks up at you and takes a few seconds before he can place you. "James? From the party that got broken up by the Merchants?"

"Yeah Thunor. Look, I'll be honest, you look like hell. D'you have class right now?"

"I should be going to the gym. I guess." He blows a gusty sigh and you can barely restrain rolling your eyes. Looks like the 'emotional affair' that he and Othala were having was heavy on the emotion.

You shake your head at him and throw an arm around his shoulders. "It's a little early for bars to be open so we're going to go to a cafe and get coffee or something and we'll dose it liberally with whiskey."

Ten minutes later in a dark little cafe you've thrown up a notice-me-not and Aelfie slipped a bottle into your backpack. "I'm assuming it's about a woman. Talk to me."

The older guy tugs at his beard and doesn't meet your eyes. "It is. Was. I don't know. Did you ever meet Erica?" At your nod he continues, "She was married to this guy—total jerk. His friends were pretty suspect too. She was part of it but seemed like I was getting through to her and she was moving away from the racism." He sighs and rubs his temples. "Her husband 'left on a long-term trip' two weeks ago and she was suddenly talking about getting a divorce. And now she's disappeared."

You blink at that… _interesting_ version of events. "Bullshit." Holding up a hand to stop him, you continue. "Look, Thunor. You called me 'cyning' at one point that day and I looked it up—it meant 'king'. I'm not, I consider myself much more of a ƿ_iċċa—_a sorcerer. Y'know, one of those real-power-behind-the-throne types. Also, pretty observant. So let me make an observation. Erica, she of the sunglasses or her hair covering one eye all the time, was the E88's Othala, who has an eyepatch. Which, if random PHO speculation is correct—and why not, who would lie on the internet?—means Victor was her husband.

"He's been arrested and is in jail in New York, not Brockton, so he's likely fucked. You're apparently a memetic sex god and were pulling Erica away from the Neo-Nazis, but because of the attack on the PRT building last week she's disappeared." You sit back and tilt your head slightly. "How'm I doing so far?"

Thunor looks around with wide eyes to see if anyone has overheard you and seems to realize that no one is paying any attention to the two of you at all. "…How?"

"So I'm dating Crystal Pelham, right? More importantly for this—Laserdream, a cape. Now she's pretty tight-lipped about cape things, but if you've seen PHO you may have seen Warlock interrupting us at lunch a couple of weeks ago. He gets chatty when he hangs out." You pull out the bottle of whiskey and pour a _very_ generous amount to top off his coffee.

Taking a sip and wincing—this isn't actually firewhiskey, but it's damn close—the redhead closes his eyes and very obviously goes over everything you've told him. He takes another swig and combs a hand through his beard. "Has he mentioned anything about… _her_?"

Poking into Thunor's head shows that he is totally fucking _besotted_ with Erica. With the woman who he talks to in stolen moments in his dorm room or in the history classes they share. He's fully aware of her many issues including her casual racism and has done work to get her to be more accepting, but there is just something about the girl in her unguarded moments that draws them together.

"Nothing specifically about 'her', no. _However_, he did mention that there were some capes apprehended that are turning either PRT or independent and getting makeovers to disassociate themselves with their previous identities. Normal procedure is to ship them off somewhere else, but it's not happening this time because of amongst other things—and I'm quoting—a 'vaguely-requited love affair'."

Thunor's face is like the sun coming up as he beams. Before he can blind you with his smile you wave a hand. "No clue about timeframes or if this is even Erica. All I can say is if that's who Warlock was talking about, she's likely to be completely different looking." You slide the guy your civilian phone number. "Now go wash your beard, gird your loins, and buck up, dude."

"That's the best news I've heard since—well since I heard about Erica's husband."

You lean in and smile, "You're sounding a lot more like some kind of chivalric knight than an Anglo-Saxon warrior."

Thunor's back in the groove as he booms (quietly), "Nay! Perhaps I shall woo her with song and poetry, but I will no longer pine ingloriously!"

After finishing off your drinks you both head back to campus and take a brotherly swig of whiskey before Thunor heads off to get his head back on straight. You tell him you'll catch up with him later in the week and see if there's anything else you can learn from Warlock.

When you catch up to Crystal and fill her in later she just boggles at you. "Did you just blame yourself for being chatty? _Really?_"

"I coulda blamed you, y'know."

"Psh, I know how to keep my mouth shut. You're playing cupid with a racist." She kisses your cheek. "I think it's sweet, I just hope she's worth it for him."

Shortly after school lets Taylor shows up at the lair. She hasn't even finished setting her backpack down before you ambush her and demand she recite the ritual chant you'd given her yesterday evening. Her pronunciation is slightly off so you correct it and chant back and forth as you walk her to the ritual area and draw her blood for the runes. When Amy shows up a little bit later you have the healer practice the runes again to ensure she'll be able to paint them on correctly.

By the time Crystal shows up you're satisfied that Taylor will be able to hold up her part. Crystal and Amy both were able to handle the runes with little issue after a small refresher.

You've informed the girls that you're using this as a test for enhancing New Wave. You can handle runes on the men, they can handle it on the women.

In practice it works beautifully. The four of you are enrobed with Taylor in the middle of a triangle set by you, Amy, and Crystal. As you invoke the magic of the circle you commingle all three women's magics with yours and find the drain on yourself is much less than it had been.

After the ritual cleanse you cast the spell to lay out the runes needed for the enhancement before your back and presumably Taylor drops her robe. The waiting seems longer than it really is before you're tapped on the shoulder and you examine the girl's naked back. Everything there seems fine, and after donning her robe again you spot check a few other parts of the runes on the chest.

At that point Taylor once again takes her place amongst her reagents and you funnel magic from the three of you supporting her as she begins to chant.

As a squib, it appears that Taylor can't quite feel the rhythm of the magic the same way you did, so you end up whispering the words along with her.

When the three of you did the ritual last week you chanted for something like a half-hour. For Taylor she mouths at the twenty-minute mark that she's not getting anything else from the reagents. You have her repeat everything once more as you reach out through the magic of the space and piggyback off of the feelings she's getting. It corresponds to what you had felt when the ritual was complete last time and you nod and gesture Amy and Crystal closer.

As you intone the closing the wave of exhaustion you felt last time is incredibly minor—the benefits of spreading one ritual across four participants, you suppose.

You don't know if she realizes you're looking, but Taylor pulls the robe open and looks down at herself, you assume to see if the runic marks are gone. You look away immediately and thus don't see her walk up to hug you, pulling herself off the floor as she wraps her arms around your neck. "Thank you. I-I feel better knowing I'm protected."

Wrapping your arms around her you feel Crystal and Amy join in as well. "I'm happy to do it. You can nap for a bit if you need to, we'll be going to the New Wave meeting in about an hour."

In fact all four of you end up on your bed, although Taylor takes the far side. Amy claims little spoon and wiggles back into you. The T-shirt she's wearing is baggy enough that you can slip your hand inside and cup a breast as you all doze for thirty-ish minutes.

The New Wave girls head out first after claiming kisses and as you roll out of bed yourself you throw a light sheet over Taylor, who sleepily mimes blowing you a kiss. You wonder if she'll remember that later and be embarrassed.

At the Pelham house you stroll in as New Wave is going over a patrol the elders did last week. You sit and wait until they're done and smile beneath your mask as Photon Mom turns to you.

"So you found three new capes to team up with, all female…"

You laugh and pull out some documentation on the _subrosa_ charm and slide it over to Brandish. "I have a secrecy spell I'd like to use to generally keep everything talked about here from randomly leaking. Mainly the various things I can do, but some of cape-related stuff as well. To indirectly answer your question, I didn't find the capes, they found _me_. One was personally suggested by the other two."

Carol taps a pen agains the table. "How exactly does this… 'spell 'work in reality?"

"Care for a demonstration? I'd need a drop of blood from you—on your own finger, you don't give it to me."

The lawyer weighs it in her head. Neil is visibly about to speak up and agree to test it when Carol cuts him off. "No, I need to know how it feels and what it restricts."

You give her a nod and stand to move over to her side of the table. "Prick your finger and get a drop of blood on it. Part of the casting process is an agreement as to what exactly is going to be secret. So I would ask that you do not discuss my ability to create items or imbue effects into things with anyone not in this group, for example. If you tried to do it on the Boardwalk you'd get a sense that others could overhear. If you wanted to ask someone else I, and everyone else in the in-group, would get that feeling so that we could collectively vote on things or dissolve the secret. Or decision-making like that could be granted to a smaller number of people—I will always be one of them, however."

Continuing, you say, "In this case, I will cast the spell and we'll walk outside. I'll tell you something, and the secret will be what we discuss outside. Neither of us can speak about it where others could overhear. We'll come back in and you can try to break it and have the others assist."

Carol goes into 'serious face', which is even worse than her normal resting bitch face, and you cast the spell. The drop of blood shimmers and turns into motes of light as similar motes come out of you. The two of you exchange some of your lights and they disappear.

"Since I specified that the secret will be told outside nothing we say here is covered. So if I—in all confidence— whisper something to you," you lean in and murmur, 'I'm not wearing socks', "it won't be restricted."

Brandish dutifully tells everyone you're sockless. "So now we go outside and do the secret part?"

You nod and the two of you walk outside. Throwing up a _muffatio_ you hand her the potion vial with Mark's potion and tell her that Amy assisted you in making it and it will last six months. "That's not the real secret though, I wanted one you'd likely want to tell. The secret is that the cape labelled 'Witchy Woman' or more properly 'Sorceress' is actually Crystal using enchanted items of mine."

The lawyer looks at you in surprise. "How in the world? Didn't she stun people with blasts like yours?"

You grin beneath the mask and you're sure it shows in your voice. "Yup. So let's go back in and you can try and tell everyone—and Crystal is okay with this, we had discussed it previously."

As you open the door and let Carol proceed you, you see the moment she tries to tell her sister that Crystal was one of the capes. You sense through the spell that Carol wants to share the secret. You deny the request and have to stop to not run into her as her steps falter for a moment. She turns back to you with a question in her eyes and you nod.

Sitting down you also try to blurt out the secret and watch as Carol frowns and carefully denies you after some consideration. "So I shared something with Brandish. She's already tried to spill the beans, as have I. I'll let her try and break it a bit until she's satisfied."

While Carol tries to write, sign, text, speak, and play charades with the other people at the table Lady Photon turns back to you. "We—the older group of New Wave—have decided to claim Captain's Hill, the University grounds, and a swath of the South Docks going south-east ending around Arcadia. It's a lot, but the University is generally fairly quiet, and while this neighborhood has Empire sympathizers there is little actual gang-related crime or cape crime. We'd end up in residential potion of the South Docks on a more regular basis.

"The kids… well, they keep saying they want to form a 'strike force' and go hunting problems rather than claim and guard territory. I don't like the idea, but they're getting to the point where I feel like we're stifling them if we don't let them attempt it." She sighs and finally gets around to asking the question you were expecting. "Would you be able to add Victoria and Eric, as well as Crystal if she's interested, to your team?" You see Glory Girl and Shielder perk up and lean forward with pleading eyes.

You wave a hand in a negation. "I'm not going to say no, but I'm also not saying yes. We—and we don't have a team name at the moment—have decided that administrative-type things are going to be done as a group for now. I'll bring it up and maybe if the others agree we'll do a group patrol and make sure that we don't have personality clashes." You hold a hand up and block Vicky and Eric's faces from your sight. "The puppy-dog eyes shit isn't going to work on me. I'd have three sets of angry eyes if I just accepted without discussion. So just like, when we come up with a time to do a patrol together don't be jerks and everything should be alright."

Carol is almost tearing her hair out trying to leak the secret and is gesturing frantically to Neil, a somewhat-interested Mark, and Vicky to try and get them to guess things. Trying to speak or write didn't work for her, and she's not making any progress with sign-language as any time she comes up with a charade-like pantomime or tries to text her arms go slack. Even trying to talk to Crystal herself about it fails like everyone else.

"Are you satisfied, Brandish?"

The older cape turns to you with just a bit of murder in her eyes. "No. Well, I'm satisfied that it seems to be secure, but it is really pissing me off. I don't like having my ability to communicate cut off somehow."

You shrug one shoulder. "Fair, but I don't like the idea of having to burn all of China because the CUI caught wind of a rumor and tried to kidnap me. It probably wouldn't be good for the environment."

Sarah looks askance at that, but Carol just nods. "Could we do multiple versons with different secrets so if we decide to release information about something the entire process doesn't need to be re-done?"

"Sure. I'd also suggest not giving _everyone_ a vote, as that does make things difficult. I would prefer an small number, but any number from one to the total number of people in on the secret will work."

The sisters look at each other and lean their heads together before Brandish uses the spell to ask to release the secret. This time you grant it and you can see her whispering into Sarah's ear. She then gets a face-full of hair when Sarah whips around to stare at Crystal, who is smirking.

Between you and Brandish, you map out separate secrets for your civilian identity (which you'll have to expose to them when you do the rituals), Sorceress' identity, and the fact that you can enchant things—and you're sure to specify that 'enchanting' means imbuing abilities into anything, items or living beings. You find it somewhat surprising that the lawyer has no problems with you being the sole determinant of adding to the secret for enchanting, but she just seems surprised at your surprise. "You need to be able to discuss it with other people and it's your ability. I deal with need-to-know on a daily basis and this doesn't seem to be horrible."

After that agreement the actual casting is straightforward. As soon as all three secrecy spells are done Crystal stands and you hand her a copy of your mask and conjure a robe around her. "I am the Sorceress! …although I preferred 'Witchy Woman', but everyone said it was dumb."

Eric jumps in before anyone else. "Wait, how did you knock people out? The report on your capture said that _you _knocked them out, not _him_."

"Funny you should say that…" Crystal starts to say, then hits Shielder with a stunner.

The rest of the table—bar Vicky—boggles as you sigh. "Really, Crystal?" Waving the teenager awake again you ignore the 'gimme hands' that Vicky is making to learn how to be able to stun people and gesture to your girlfriend. "So this is one of the reasons I phrased the 'enchantment' things the way I did. That wasn't a ritual, it is a semi-permanent tattoo."

"_Crystal Marie Pelham,_ you got a _tattoo?!_" comes from across the table.

"Awesome, it's a tattoo!" comes from Vicky and Eric.

You burst out laughing and get the laser focus of Sarah Pelham on you. "And you, did you see my little girl naked when you put a tattoo on her?" She turns back to her daughter. "What did your boyfriend have to say about it?"

Crystal looks over at you and you slip your mask off for real. "He thinks he did a great job, honestly."

Lady Photon looks like you force-fed her a lemon. Vicky and Eric crack up laughing. Crystal opens her mouth but you whistle loudly and draw all the attention to yourself.

"Alright, I don't feel like dealing with intra-family drama, so let me say a few things. First, it's not an actual _tattoo_ done with a tattoo gun. It's more like henna—drawn on the skin in blood and ink a lot like the ritual you all have expressed interest in. The difference being that that ink is being used up as she uses the spells I programmed into it and the tattoo will stop working in time. How much time I'm not sure, it depends on use. The ritual is permanent.

"Second, you'll notice it's not visible. Part of the design makes it fade into the skin unless Crystal pulls it up to be visible." Flicking a finger over to the blonde in question she pokes at a spot on the back of her shoulder and the extensive full-sleeve-and-back design becomes visible. Eric is almost salivating looking at it, while Vicky suddenly looks much less interested.

Lady Photon actually flies over the table to examine the lines while Carol looks between you and Amy. "Are you dating Crystal or Amy?"

Before you can speak up (and probably answer 'yes'), Amy leans in and grins. "He's dating Crystal, but he's pregnant with my baby."

It is a testament to Amy's sense of humor that everyone pauses, considers what is said and who said it, and proceeds to ignore her.

"So _anyhow_, Crystal and I are dating. Amy and _Warlock_ are dating, as Amy said something about better—or at least different—press." You look over at the pouting brunette and decide to throw her a slightly humorous bone. "I am also contractually obligated to tell you that she is really my sugar momma. She offers me money to make me do things, like make this statement out loud to her family. Also I'm pregnant with her baby. She's my baby daddy. Momma. Whatever." You hold your hand out in Amy's direction and get a handful of coins dropped into your palm.

Neil breaks out in laugher at that point and everyone seems to take that as a cue to get up and get drinks and admire Crystal's ink.

Five minutes and refreshments later and Sarah has calmed down, but only after trying everything except lasers to scrub the lines off her daughter's skin. You explain how the runic tattoos will expire, and even if you actually tattooed them into the skin it would only extend the time it lasted, it wouldn't be permanent.

"In contrast a ritual is permanent. It also involves runes—that's the way that I control how reality is altered—but it locks the changes into you permanently. A magical item is the physical object version of that, something that will permanently have an effect of some kind. Speaking of items, though… Crystal, show them the color-changing stone."

Laserdream suddenly having silver shields is interesting, and even more so after she hands the stone over and Brandish's weapons turn purple and then green as they explore the options you had programmed into the stone. Mark even rouses himself to ask if you could do a multicolored or strobe effect. When you say it's possible with a bit more research on your part he chuckles and whistles something that sounds like the hook to 'Disco Inferno' before going quiet again.

Unfortunately for Vicky and Neil, their shields aren't generally visible so the color-changing for them doesn't accomplish that much. You may have noticed an odd tint to their skin, but only in bright light.

You also have Crystal and Amy show their enchanted jewelry and explain the various spells they have on them. The auto-portkey function if they're hurt or knocked unconscious gets particular attention, although the Pelham house is the only real 'lair' they have.

"Now, between doing the ritual—or ritual_s_—and creating emergency portkeys I'll be pretty busy with things. We can talk about giving everyone a runic tattoo but even the three-shot option took something like an hour and a half and I'll likely need to refresh the spells themselves here soon. I'd like to spread all of this out as much as possible, but there'll need to be a couple of days between rituals." You gesture over to Crystal and Amy, "Both of them have had it done, as have I, so we can act as batteries so that the power required is stretched between more participants. This is part of the sacrifice that makes the ritual different—and more permanent—than a simple tattoo."

You turn to the elder two ladies of the group. "Also since the two of them already have practice with inking the runes they can draw them on you and I don't have to look if it bothers you. In the case of the guys I can do the drawing and _they_ can turn away and not look." You shrug, "Or we can all be naked, I don't really care."

Both mothers seem completely in tune as they point out that _they_ care, and there will be the absolute minimum required nakedness, thank you very much.

The ladies—Sarah, Carol, and Vicky—will go first either on Friday or Saturday, with the men—Neil, Mark, and Eric—to be handled the next time you can run the ritual, probably at least two days later. You'll also work on getting everyone a simple bracelet that returns people to the Pelham house for the moment in the same circumstances that you, Crystal, and Amy would be recalled to your lair.

As you take your leave both Crystal and Amy are cornered by Vicky before you've even made it out of the door.

Later, Crystal tells you that Glory Girl was endlessly curious about the whole two-timing thing when both girls know what's going on. Amy seemed to get annoyed by it, but it appeared fairly lighthearted on Vicky's part.

You leave a space between you on the bed when you get in and call Aelfie to grab your mistress if she's not asleep.

She wasn't, but she _was_ naked and fingering herself. You spoon her and take over when her hand goes slack with surprise. She's soon cumming on your fingers as Crystal kisses her and presses their breasts together. You get Aelfie to pop the younger girl back to her bed and adjust your wards to not let her back in. You and Crystal snicker to each other as she rolls you on top of her and you sink into her welcoming depths and your phones chime angrily in the background.

As you wake up on Tuesday morning you have a long email from Tattletale. She apparently spent much of the previous day doing research and has come to the conclusion that Accord has crafted a plan that involves either taking over the Bay or at least establishing a presence in order to do so at a later date. Additionally there are at least three bounties regarding information about you, all of which she has reason to believe are from Accord through various shell organizations.

Now the thugs that attacked the Undersiders were there for Lisa specifically and knew nothing about you nor did they know anything of other plans Accord may have had, so you can't say if this is Lisa trying to use you to eliminate a problem, her own shard spinning a crazy tale, or completely valid logic.


	49. Tue-Wed Mar 8-9

You'd swear that your bathroom wasn't like this last week, but Crystal's stuff has mysteriously invaded your previously-pristine counter space. Space expansion charms keep it from being an issue but the look you shoot your girlfriend is wry enough that she stops brushing her teeth and looks over at you with a mouth like a rabid dog. "Wha?"

Petting her on the head and scratching her behind the ear doesn't seem to be the answer she's looking for, oddly.

Later, as you're walking along the paths on campus she's more clingy than she's been in a while. When you point it out her response probably shouldn't have surprised you. "You're just walking in to Accord's territory like it's no big deal. He's—he seems like he has no problem with just doing whatever will satisfy his plans quickest. Capes that dealt with him have just gone missing before."

Sliding your arm around her you pull her in tighter. "I'll have an emergency portkey just like yours."

She maneuvers the two of you into an unused classroom and closes the door. "Aelfie?"

A soft pop heralds the elf's appearance as she appears from behind a desk, out of sight of the windows. "Yes, Lady Crystal?"

The blonde squats down to get on the house-elf's level and gives the other creature a _look_. "You know that James is going over to Boston as Warlock right?"

Aelfie's tennis-ball eyes are wide as she nods solemnly. "Master is making parleys with a _mærhlisa_—a villain."

"Exactly. I want you to watch out for him and if anyone tries to attack him from behind you stop them, okay?"

You realize you'd never seen a house-elf's teeth before Aelfie bares hers in a savage grin that reminds you she came from a more warlike time. "Ælgifu not let _anyone_ harm her Master."

Crystal hugs the small creature to her and gets a squeak as she hugs back. "You're the best, Aelfie."

When the time approaches for you to be picked up in Boston you check over all of your gear. Since Accord's mask supposedly moves to match his facial expressions you charm yours to do likewise. If it happens to irritate the cape you can always stop it before it becomes a serious issue. From Coil's memories Accord is unlikely to try and have you killed outright, he has a longer fuse than that. That comes with a proportionally-larger explosion later, however.

You apparate while disillusioned to the roof of a building in sight of your pickup spot. A sweep of the area shows nothing untoward so you pop to a roof closer and smoke out of the alleyway. The Charlestown neighborhood's streets aren't particularly busy, but you _do_ turn a few heads before they notice the car picking you up and turn away. It seems that this isn't the first time Accord has done this and no one wants to draw his attention.

'The car' is a pearlescent-white Rolls Royce Phantom that's obviously had some additional work done, as the coach door on the street side opens automatically, revealing Citrine posed in her yellow mask and evening gown on the far side. "Warlock, enter please."

Despite the absurdity of it the car has a white leather interior that is pristine, so you remove and shrink your hat and hit your boots with cleaning charms as you gracefully lower yourself into the seat. "A pleasure to meet you in person, Citrine."

The severe set of the cape's yellow lips lessens slightly as she inclines her head fractionally. She extends a hand and doesn't blink as you turn and hold her hand up to your mask for a moment in a pantomime of a kiss before releasing it. "Likewise." She perches somewhat sideways on the seat as the car smoothly merges back into traffic. "Before we arrive at the meeting I will be informing you of a few points of etiquette…"

You raise a hand and your eyebrows mildly. "A point of clarification I would like to make now in the event that it may cause issues—while you stated that Accord would like to speak with me I will not be attending hat in hand and tugging my forelock. If your leader is expecting me to act in any way subservient we can end this ride now." Bringing your hands together and then spreading them in an offering gesture you continue, "To be clear I do not expect deference from _him_ but I expect a discussion, not an attempted dressing-down."

Citrine's eyes flicker in the depths of her mask. "All discussion will be between you and Accord. I am merely offering a refresher course on a number of points of politeness."

Brushing the cape's mind you find that Accord has found himself vexed by what happened to Coil and there very well may be anger directed your way. There's nothing Citrine—Jeanne—would care to do about it though. Accord wants to meet with you so she will do everything she can to make it happen.

And if need be she'll kill you for Accord as well, or sell you to the Yangban. Whatever Accord wants.

"Of course," you say, settling back into the seat, "then by all means please continue."

What follows isn't necessarily what you would categorize as real etiquette lessons as it's primarily focused on small issues that are some of Accord's primary sticking points. Yes, you may have been noted as making expansive gestures while performing on the Boardwalk but being told to 'keep all gestures within the span of your shoulders' is honestly insulting.

The arrival and disembarkation at Accord's headquarters goes smoothly, and were it not for your mental senses you could be excused for assuming the building was entirely automated; no human presence is visible but you can feel both civilians and parahumans behind the walls as you enter a wood-paneled elevator. As all of Accord's Ambassadors are supposed to be vial-created you skim them and find similarities—their shards don't push feelings into their hosts' minds. They also don't exhibit the same groaning, droning death rattle that marked Legend's shard, so that may be something specific to the Triumvirate.

There are no buttons in the elevator itself but you get from your guide's mind that a small RFID tag in Citrine's mask allows access to the floor Accord is on. You step out into a well-furnished antechamber and pause for a moment as Citrine looks you over, presumably to ensure nothing in your attire will cause issues. That gives you a chance to feel outwards and recognize four Cauldron triggers behind the false walls and one Scion shard through the elegantly-carved doors in front of you.

Probing gently into Accord's mind you notice some similarities between his shard and Lisa's. Both shove their insights into the host's brain, but while Lisa's is a steady flood of information—both wanted and non—that can overheat her head, Accord's is a firehose blasting percentages of success for dozens, even hundreds, of variables along with separate pressure-washer level blasts pointing out every misaligned chair and dust mote in the room. It appears that as part of the trigger process the shard decided that there was no need to figure out how to throttle or filter the constant blast of information that would be provided. Seeing how much information is forced into his brain you can understand how certain phrases, actions, and even smells could engender anger if your shard screams and draws attention to how someone making expansive gestures or fumbling otherwise simple etiquette could _endanger everything this is CRITICAL DANGER!_ constantly.

There is a shift in one of Accord's capes as they move into his office and stand in front of the doors. The actual unlatching and opening is silent and you would never have noticed if you weren't already looking in that direction.

As Citrine leads you into Accord's office you do your best to keep all of your observations subtle. You can detect the moment that Accord turns his attention to you from a paper he was reading. Again, it's not the same kind of information that Tattletale can glean—where Lisa may be able to glean your handedness, or perhaps tension in your frame showing you're expecting an attack, Accord sees a smooth, assured gait, but one with a minimal chance of misstep. His shard notices that the hem of your duster never tangles around your legs, that the open lapels don't flap in a way that would impede your hands. The metaphorical blaring sirens quiet just a bit as you adjust yourself ever-so-slightly in a number of tiny ways as you come to a stop in front of Accord's desk.

The white-clad cape is far from imposing. He looks—and this is an unkind comparison that never leaves your mind—like a slightly less-bald Danny DeVito. His three-piece suit is immaculate and the wood-and-silver mask mirrors the slight tensing of his jaw in a way you would have assumed was impossible without the use of magic or electronics.

Your guide comes to a stop three feet from the desk and steps to the side and around the desk as you place your arms behind your back and nod your head. "Accord."

The nod in return is precisely measured to be ever-so-slightly shallower than yours. The other cape had moved up behind and past you as you entered and now steps up to frame the kingpin with a pale blonde in yellow on his right and her dark-skinned counterpart in blue-green on his left. "Warlock." He stretches your cape name out just a bit and pauses afterwards, making a small gesture with his left hand. "Please be seated."

It's—not a _trap_ exactly, but something of a gauge of your reactions. Turning your back to him to acquire one of the other chairs in the room would expose you for a fool (or foolhardy). Raising the floor would anger him, yes, but also show you as needlessly destructive and uncaring of consequences. Refusing and standing would be its own answer, showing you to be bullheaded. You feel a faint desire to seat yourself upon a copy of the Chair of Saint Peter or perhaps the Coronation Chair but instead with the slightest of inclines of your head you conjure an Eames chair and use magic to lower yourself in it, folding your hands in your lap in a perfect image of relaxation.

For almost a full minute the Thinker regards you silently as his shard roars furiously in his mind, doing its best to reduce you into a cog in the greater machine of Accord's numerous plans. In the back of his mind the Coil issue simmers, although he is ignoring it. Even his two Ambassadors seem ill-at-ease with the silence although neither shows an outward sign.

Finally though the small man leans forward to place his elbows on the perfectly polished surface of his desk. "I find myself surprised that you acquiesced to a meeting so easily."

"I had no reason to refuse and every reason to agree," you respond mildly, "as you have already sent Coil's leftovers back into Brockton Bay to attempt to abscond with Tattletale once it served my interests to speak with you directly before anything else happened."

Accord's head tilts downward a fraction. "I did nothing of the sort."

You put both hands up in a 'stop' gesture. "Oh, of course _you_ didn't. It was your right hand, Citrine, who actually approved it. Something of that nature is hardly the kind of low-level thuggery you would involve yourself directly in."

"Further unfounded accusations would be _unwise_, Warlock."

"Well certainly the information gathered from Tattletale's Thinker powers and my own deductions _could_ be disregarded, but the location services on all four suspects' phones that show them in Boston, in a hotel in this neighborhood, and most specifically _in this building_ for multiple meetings including one on Friday before they returned to Brockton is strong corroborating evidence. You may, however, 'unfound' my accusation if you wish." Lacing your fingers together as you lean back slightly you give a languid blink that your mask echoes. "To be blunt, Tattletale is currently under my protection until she decides what she is going to do next. By all means extend her a polite, non-coercive offer of employment if you wish—although I believe you would find her habits endlessly irritating—or made demands of her for one reason or another but make no further attempts on her." You let amusement slide into your tone as you continue, "You could even request that she inform on me again. Despite the issues her powers have with getting information from me she may even take you up on it."

In the back of the Thinker's mind he is running over the plans he had tacitly endorsed last week. It had over a 90% chance of success and even though measures were in place to insulate Accord himself from the dealings, phone tracking was _not_ something he planned for, and the unaccounted-for variable blares at him in hindsight. That you invented that reasoning out of whole cloth apparently doesn't matter. He decides to drop the subject and shift to a different one. "You have found yourself in quite the position of power in Brockton Bay recently. Are you perhaps continuing from where Coil left off?"

"No." You make a cutting gesture with one hand before folding it again. "I don't _want_ his place. Coil wished to rule the Bay as a tyrant, I want neither the paperwork nor the burden. I am a wizard, content to live in my tower and interact as I see fit, to provide words of wisdom to those who would hear it, and—if needed—to smite those who would harm me and mine." Bringing one finger up to tap at your chin you continue while monitoring the level of Accord's anger. "I feel no compunction urging me to take over the cape scene and want no stronger ties to the greater bureaucracy in either the government or PRT than I currently have."

Accord's voice is a carefully-modulated tenor. "You are embodying your namesake a bit too closely, perhaps."

You thank Thunor for his interest in the Anglo-Saxon period. "While the accepted etymology could mean that _leogan_ can also be translated as 'deny' instead of 'deceive', and _wær _can be used for 'covenant'. So I deny any covenants otherwise implied. Also, as Scots merely defined it as the masculine counterpart of witch, it is a more evocative word choice than wizard, which carries connotations of long white beards and pointy hats."

The set of Accord's shoulders moves ever-so-slightly looser. "That is an unusual reading of the name. One would assume you picked it because it merely 'sounded _cool_'." The last word is bitten off like it offends him to speak it.

Crossing your ankles you are the very picture of nonchalance. "I cannot claim it didn't cross my mind. Again, _wizard_ brings to mind doddering old men. 'Myrddin' was a non-starter, and in my own mind 'sorcerer' assumes a level of flash and panache that I am certainly _capable_ of, but wouldn't want to commit to at all times." You pause and nod your head back to the villainous rogue. "But this meeting isn't to discuss Old English, is it?"

"No. As the supposed architect of Coil's downfall—which we will speak of in a moment—I wanted to inform you that I have business interests expanding into Brockton Bay."

You give a barely-audible hum, the first gesture you've made which he registers as grating, and let it taper off. "I have no issue with legitimate businesses, so long as they comply with all local laws. If your legitimate businesses happen to serve double duty for, say, bases for your agents, then I will at least know where to drop the bodies off after I've dealt with them."

"These are not _tea shops,_ Warlock. We—"

"—were jointly investing in both a construction company and a 'private security' company." You use the air quotes while keeping them within the span of your shoulders and can _feel_ the faint irritation from Citrine. Despite such affectations being exactly the kind of thing that would normally grate on Accord he is more focused on the fact that you know of the plans. "I didn't merely smash-and-grab. While the majority of my attention was focused on ensuring that there were no unwelcome surprises waiting to explode—figuratively or otherwise—I did get a brief look at some of Coil's other plans."

You lean forward a bit and let the side of your lips turn up in a smile. "Now let us get to the real reason for this meeting. Please, go ahead and say it."

There's no hesitation. "You participated in the destruction of Coil's group and holdings last week."

Bringing your clasped hands up you extend both pointer fingers and tap them to your mask's silver mouth grille. "To be clear, I was the _primary driver_ and reason for the destruction of Coil last week."

Accord is bothered by that statement, angry, but not driven _mad_. Yet. "What reason can you possibly offer for hunting him down? To reduce a fellow parahuman to _that_. Explain yourself."

Your smile is thin, and that is reflected on your mask. "First, I don't claim fellowship with a man who uses his powers to simulate the torture of other humans for pleasure." Accord's shard-enhanced mind and what he knew of Calvert's desires chew on that statement and decide there is something unpleasant in your words. You don't pause for him to respond, however. "Then, there is something of an unspoken agreement in the world of capes that a person's unmasked self is to be left alone. Coil believed himself immune to this agreement. I have provided my acquaintances with warning systems. From that I tracked down the minion who was directed to place audio bugs and discovered that this was not the first time Coil decided to spy on parahumans—he had done the same to many of the capes in Brockton Bay. And so he had to go." Cocking your head to the side you tap a cheek. "In all honestly, however, if I had known how he would react he would have been vanished instead."

You read a line of thought in Accord's head and sigh mentally. "Speaking of…" you pull out your phone and conjure a glass table as you dial and place the phone on speaker, noting the time.

The phone is answered with your civilian tones. "Warlock, I thought you were in a meeting in Boston."

Making sure to match eyes with the Thinker opposite you you let a bit of disdain creep into your voice. "I am. However the gentleman I'm meeting shares Coil's feelings towards spying on people. I have reason to believe one of his," you pause to make the next word significant, "_people_ is working off information shared with him from Coil. You may have a stalker."

"Again? I don't see anyone in costume, obviously," James retorts, "and I'm on the commons in between classes so you would need to give me something to go on. Are they disguised as a worker like last time?"

Turning your masked head to the women flanking him you raise a silver eyebrow-equivalent. "There appears to be a dress code but I'm unsure if that is maintained during fieldwork. Look for someone in formal clothes."

Accord's fingers have tightened into fists and both Ambassadors are tensed and waiting on a word from him. The few seconds of silence before James speaks again is heavy with violent potential.

"There is a gentleman in a black sport coat, slacks and _very_ shiny shoes with gigantic sunglasses that cover his upper face. Somewhat unusual on campus, really. He's stopped and not quite looking in my direction roughly a hundred feet away."

_Othello_, you pick from the Thinker's mind. "That's likely them, yes. Do you happen to have the portkey I made for emergency purposes still?"

The jingle of keys sounds along with an affirmative noise. "Yes, right where I put it. Should I use it?"

"No," you tell yourself, "I put in an extra trigger in case it was needed. Say 'tag, you're it' and toss it at them as you get close."

"And if I'm wrong?"

"I return them with an apology a moment later."

The four of you in the office hear the trigger phrase through the phone and a moment later Othello is deposited, unconscious, a few feet away from you. Actually, one body and _something_ that reads as the same cape arrive, although you can't get a handle on the latter other than it exists.

You gesture to the prone body. "I believe this is yours." You pause and give a small shake of the head. "No, let me rephrase. This _is_ yours. As I am here in front of you I will give you one warning out of courtesy. The next time one of yours finds its way to my city I will disable it before giving it back to you."

The blue-gowned woman looks between Accord, who has frozen in anger, and you. "Disable?" Her voice is strong and of a slightly different timbre than Citrine's. The yellow-garbed cape has moved over to check on her fellow, although she never allows you out of her sight as she does.

You nod. "Yes, and that would be _such_ a horrible waste of money and time."

Citrine is unable to rouse the man even as the air around him gains a washed-out yellow tint that shows she is trying to affect the area containing Othello in some way. "Unconsciousness for non-Brutes lasts for roughly an hour. Some variance due to other parahuman powers is to be expected." You turn back to the internally seething Accord. "The teleportation process is an inherently violent one. I can ensure that limbs are shaken loose in the future, although targeting specific limbs is difficult."

Silver shutters mimicking eyelids narrow at you as his hand tightens on the edge of the desk. "You can re-awaken him earlier, I assume." At your nod the intricate mechanisms of his mask shift and tense. "Revive him if you would." Even reading his mind you're not sure if he's capable of adding 'please' at the end or not.

Gesturing for Citrine to step back you wait until everyone is clear before hitting the man with a _rennervate_. To Othello's credit his awakening is silent and swift as he rolls to the side and rises in a crouch. You can feel the odd distortion prickle against your magical senses. It feels like the ghostly sensation that occurs as someone portkeys in near you or Aelfie elf-popping nearby except constant. Unfortunately it's also non-directional—you can't figure out where exactly his dimensional doppelgänger is.

You can feel Accord's shard-boosted brain attempt to construct reasoning for how you were so sure that someone was trying to get eyes on your civilian persona. Mind reading _is_ one of the hypotheses that he's considering, although far from the only one. Perhaps a comment diverting attention to something else?

**{1}**

As the male Ambassador brushes his jacket off you stand and vanish your chair and the table for your phone. "I think this meeting is over—and it's such a shame that I didn't get to mention my sideline in cosmetic alterations and healing." You flick a card out and it lands perfectly aligned with the corner of Accord's desk. "When you decide if maintaining the sanctity of my work in the Bay is acceptable you can contact me through my lawyer." Expanding your hat you tip it to the assembled parahumans. Your vision goes yellow and you feel something like a child's attempts at putting up an anti-apparition ward settle against your skin. Turning your mask to pin her with your gaze you let your silver lips spread out to an ear-to-ear smile. "How _rude_."

You make sure your disapparition is completely silent, brushing aside the attempt to snare you like cobwebs. You hop to a random rooftop in Boston you had scryed before hopping back to the Bay.

In your lair you turn back time thirty minutes and text Crystal with the details even as Aelfie switches your outfit over to your casual clothes and you come out of the building you had gone into earlier. Before you exit you create a triggered portkey that looks like Crystal's New Wave symbol as a keychain, something you could plausibly be carrying. Othello was easy to spot as he lurks around outside—he is actually very skilled at blending in even in clothes that look unusual for the area, but you have… is it hindsight if it technically happened in the future? Foresight, perhaps. In any case you let him tail you and ignore the feelings of his astral projection as it hovers around you as you wave to a Thunor who looks on his way back to his bushy-bearded best.

In the wake of your stalker's disappearance you _do_ get questions asked of you by people nearby, but claiming that 'Warlock asked me to' manages to quiet them.

You've barely made it back to your apartment when Crystal portkeys in and launches herself at you. Seating herself in your lap you go over the entire meeting as she nuzzles your neck. "So did you just kind of claim all of Brockton Bay as yours even though you specifically said you weren't?"

"Eh, kinda." You laugh as she rolls her eyes at you. "I know, it's not helpful. I think I've established that I _do_ watch what's going on and fucking around too visibly will bring retaliation. Speaking of retaliation though…" You pull out your cape phone and put it on speaker and dial Tattletale.

She picks up on the third ring. "Well, you're calling. Is that a good sign?"

You hold the phone a bit closer and deepen the pitch of your voice. "You are _mine_, Tattletale."

Since you can't see her reactions or read her mind, you just soak in the confused silence for a moment. Unfortunately it's all too short. You can just imagine how furiously her shard is working. "Does your girlfriend know you're replacing her with a newer model?"

Crystal gets stuck between rolling her eyes and trying not to audibly laugh, and that combination looks painful. You rub her back as you respond. "Now why would I replace someone so irreplaceable? No, I've stated to Accord that you are under my protection until you decide to join the PRT or break off on your own or whatever. Let me be clear, though, you can't just dither."

"You're choosing your words carefully and it's bothering me."

You sigh. "I normally would have said 'you can't sit around with your thumb up your ass', but I assumed you didn't need the visual. _Anyhow_, I did say he could try and recruit you politely but if he oversteps his bounds let me know. I've already had to remind him that spying is bad."

"One of those teleport-items in case of emergency would be nice, could I get one?"

Crystal has recovered her poise and taps your lips with a finger. "Depends. How well do you suck cock?"

The answer is apparently 'not well', because there's a choking sound on the other end of the line for a moment before you hear her mutter 'Laserdream? But... Oh!'.

"Great job dear, now she's going to actually start thinking about our relationship."

Leaning a little closer to the phone Crystal speaks almost intimately. "Tattletale? Turn it off, it's safer that way."

"I'd love to," Lisa responds tartly.

You can just _feel_ the headache that's about to come but also feel like you shouldn't stop it. Your girlfriend is looking at the phone and considering. "We'll get together and talk about it."

That's a _horrible_ idea. "That's a horrible idea, really."

"Uh, thanks for the call, gotta go," the Thinker spits out quickly before hanging up on you.

You give your lovely, kinky, and very experimental girlfriend a look. "Crys, her powers make her like forcibly celibate. When you asked how well she sucks dick it probably started filling her head with every guy she saw today and how long it'd been since they washed their junk."

Crystal shifts against your crotch with a little smile. "But not you?"

"I'm a weird blind spot for her. She can still tell things about me—she'd probably be able estimate how long it'd been since I showered—but not stuff like 'I'm thinking about her sexually.'. Hitting myself with a cleaning charm might throw her for a loop too, I don't know."

"She sounds like she could do with someone to talk to," your Lady decides. When you roll your head back and groan she leans in and kisses your neck.

"D'you remember asking me if I had a thing for broken birds to heal like Amy's anime guys? Pot, kettle. They might not all turn out like Taylor, either."

You can feel her shrug from where she's tucked into your chin. "I like being a cape, but I like helping people in ways that don't involve blowing things up."

She'd be a horrible shrink—but she would probably be a wonderful life coach. She just ends up caring too much about people personally. "Lisa's issues aren't Taylor's, and until like the last week or so she was riding high as the brains of a secret villain group. She likes using her power as a weapon, her cape name is _way_ too appropriate."

Crystal is quiet and thoughtful for a while before she asks a question that tells you her mind is going down a path you didn't want to to go. "The stuff you're starting to teach us… is it going to help block Tattletale's powers?"

Chuffing out a breath you decide how to answer that. "Yes. _Buuuuut_ you're not gonna be doing it on a short time scale. It'll take months even if I start you focusing on it now." Actually you could probably go faster if you did the teaching via legilimency, but…

_Of course_ she starts asking related questions. "Can magic be used to master people?"

Still, you've been honest with her so far, no reason to start lying now. "Yeah. The only major impossibilities I've read so far is creating true, actual love and resurrecting the dead. Everything else seems negotiable."

"Do you know how to?"

You shrug, shifting her from where she lays on you slightly. "Yes. I've even confused people—like Jedi-mind-trick level stuff—to keep them from noticing me, but I've never tried full-on control, so my knowledge is all hypothetical."

"How about mind reading—I mean you've said part of what you're teaching is how to protect our minds from masters, but could I learn how to read people's minds?"

The answer to her second question is easy. As a squib she's incapable of using external magic like that unless you create some kind of legilimency gun for her. But as for the other part of the question… she expects that you can, but wants to hear it from your own lips.

**{2}**

The two of you cuddle for a bit before Crystal moves up and checks the time. "You made the cake for Soon already?" At your affirmative grunt she continues, "Is it big enough for you to jump out of wearing only a bow tie and speedo?"

"The girl almost passed out when you pushed her to flirt with me the other day, do you want her to have an actual heart attack?"

"Okay, that's what I want for _my_ birthday, then."

"I'll _engorgio_ a regular cake for you and come out naked if you'd prefer, but let's not kill our friends, dear."

As you finally rise from your cuddle and get dressed to go out clubbing after the cake and presents—Sarah apparently found a place that doesn't card—Crystal gets a text from the birthday girl herself. "I'm flying over to her parents' house to pick her up, we'll portkey to my dorm room—"

You hand her two bracelet-sized hoops. "The first goes to the commons at the end of their hall. Text me before you use it and we'll all hide. The second goes to that park over by the club. We can get Aelfie to check the landing spot and make sure no one's creeping in the bushes."

With a kiss she's gone and you apparate over with the cake. The girls are still getting ready so after announcing your presence you head into the common room and lay on the couch.

Sierra is the first to meet up with you. She sits on the edge of the cushions and scoots back into your chest with a affected casualness. With her darker skin you can't tell if she blushes when you casually drape your arm around her waist and pull her back a little harder, but you think she is. A brush against her mind and you _know_ she is. "Did you know your girl's been telling tales about you?"

You laugh. "Who do you think told her that all of your faces were steaming up the glass watching us? I figured she'd do something like that."

"And you just let her decide who you're doing?"

Sitting up you drag her with you and sit her on your lap. She shifts against your cock as her tight little dress inches up those delicious dark thighs. You put your lips near her ear, "Oh, I have veto power. But why would I when she's shown such excellent taste?"

The dreadlocked girl clears her throat and decides that engaging directly isn't in her best interest. "So you made the cake? Is it as good as your cookies were?"

Just because _she's _trying to disengage doesn't mean you will. "I certainly hope so. Funny thing about baking, and more specifically using chocolate in baking…"

Sierra's head has drifted back and she's tilted her neck to bare it to you unconsciously. "Hmm?"

"Well, in baking when you're making something chocolate, even if it's delicious _cake_—" your hands slide from around her waist to give a firm squeeze to an equally firm ass, "it only tastes right with a shot of vanilla inside it." The flex of your cock at the word _shot_ was wholly unnecessary but still gets a surprised twitch of her own in response.

You hear a door opening and unsteady steps tottering down the hall as Savannah comes in and almost collapses down next to the two of you ."Why did I let y'all talk me in to heels? I'm gonna break somethin' by the end of the night."

"'Vanna?" Sierra murmurs, rolling her hips on you slow and hard, "think we could just steal James away and lock ourselves in our room?"

"Maybe if you want Laserdream to bust in our window and spank us. You'd probably laik that." The southern blonde's drawl is as thick as her sarcasm.

"Can't decide if I'd be down with that," the black girl comments, sliding off your lap, "this boy is dangerous."

You give Savannah your most innocent look as a couple of the other girls start trickling in. Every one of them asks why she's laughing so hard. Luckily you're able to calm the blonde hyena down long enough to explain that Crystal and Soon are going to be arriving via powers because not five minutes later you get the 'incoming' text from your girlfriend. With everyone in tight dresses you get a veritable feast of delectable asses as they do their best to squat down behind the couches.

The two missing girls appear in a whirl of magic, with the more-experienced Crystal keeping a dizzy Soon-Yi upright. Which comes in handy a moment later when everyone jumps up and startles her.

Sweeping in, you claim the petite Korean girl from your girlfriend and guide her to a seat as everyone gathers around and sings Happy Birthday to Soon's acute embarassment. After the song is done everyone has some cake (which gets some almost-pornographic noises from the girls) and pre-games with shots of birthday cake flavored vodka. Honestly, it's like there's no accounting for taste. After everyone eats, Soon's given a number of presents, although the (exaggeratedly large) bag that Crystal was planning on putting the magical dong in is missing.

When you feel a tingle of elf-magic and Crystal pulls it out from behind the same couch you were hiding behind a few minutes ago you get your answer. The bag is neon pink, fur trimmed along the top, and is emblazoned with 'Crystal's Secret' in an equally-garish purple. "Now this is a _special_ present from me to you." She pauses for a second and taps a thoughtful finger against a cheek. "James helped some, mostly by laying there and looking pretty." She smirks when you bat your eyelashes at her.

Soon-Yi gives the taller girl a confused look as her arm disappears into the veritable sea of tissue paper inside the bag. It's obvious the moment her hand makes contact as her eyes keep sliding wider and wider and her mouth opens in a soundless 'O' of wonder and confusion. Her head turns mechanically to the blonde next to her and everyone's background chatter fades away.

With a laugh Crystal whisks Soon and the bag with the payload off to the girl's dorm room. Karen, her roommate, follows in their wake. The rest of the girls turn to you as you steadfastly stare at the wall and try not to break out in laughter.

"James…." It's Susan who once again steps up to be the leader, "what exactly did you give her?"

You turn to regard the girl with a wry smile. "_I_ didn't choose to give her that, Crystal did. Like she said, I just laid there."

The bespectacled brunette blinks and you watch as an idea pops into her head and realization dawns on her face. Before she can say anything however, shrieks break out from Soon and Karen's room and every head except yours turns as they scramble off.

Well, everyone except Susan. Her eyes narrow. "Did Crystal give a copy of your cock to a girl who will never be able to take you without hurting herself?"

Sidling up next to her you throw an arm around her bare shoulders and revel in how she goes limp against you. "I'm a big fan of portmanteaus, so let's say she gave her a 'cockpy'." The eyeroll and sigh that gets is violent, so you give her a second to recover before continuing. "I think Crys considers the gift aspirational. If Soon can't take any of it without hurting herself at all and tells Crystal that Amy might end up getting involved."

"I almost wish you were a quick shot so I could get on my knees and get a bellyful of you."

You look down on her curled into your side with amazement. "Kinky, but once again we don't need the birthday girl to die of terminal embarassment. What's gotten into you?"

Pushing her face into the crook of your neck—which even with you not standing up straight and her in heels she barely reaches—Susan takes in your scent and becomes impossibly more plastered against you. "My period's about to start and I get super-crazy-horny right as it hits."

"Talk to Crystal and tell her. I'm sure she'd be happy to lend her dorm bed." You place a 'magic hand' over her womb and push warmth and her dainty hand wraps around your forearm to press you in harder. Her thighs grind and her hips tense in an odd dance as she uses her other arm to drag you into a sideways kiss.

Just as you realize she's trapped the band of her underwear under your hand and was using the tension to rub against it she manages a tiny hands-free orgasm in your arms, pulling her lips from yours to gulp a lungful of air. "Fuck, I think that just made it worse."

You hear a door shut from down the hallway and she steps away from you and smooths her skirt down. "Seriously Susie, talk to Crystal."

Sarah ambles in, meets your eyes, and smirks. "It felt pretty big in the dark, but it looks unfuckingreal just sitting there, gotta say. Everyone's holding it up against themselves and flipping out. I'm pretty sure Sierra and Crystal are dressing Soon like she's a mannequin, girl's like stunned by the majesty of your junk."

Laughing, you head down the hallway and knock on Karen and Soon's door. It barely opens before a set of blue eyes locks on yours and the door is slammed in your face and a fresh round of shrieks start up again, so you lean against the door instead. "Did you all somehow revert back to middle school?"

You almost fall in as the door gets reopened and Crystal slips out and hugs you, almost crying with laughter. "Oh man, I might've screwed up."

Pulling her away from the door—which gets shut and maybe locked against your imagined depredations—you hold her at arm's length. "Explain?"

It takes her a while to explain, but you manage to piece it together between her breaking down into giggles. "Soon just freaked out as soon as she pulled it out of the bag. Whenever it's in her eyesight she just freezes up like she's a mouse and it's a very big snake. Karen's hardly any better, she keeps touching it and then running away."

"That's because they're the princesses of the group," Sarah says as she and Susan join you. The latter elbows the former and they exchange looks. "What? Both of their families kept 'em pretty sheltered." She looks over at Crystal, who's wiping tears from her eyes. "I don't think either of them even has a vibrator, you probably should have started her off with something like half the size."

Crystal takes a handkerchief from you and finishes wiping her eyes as she laughs and smooths down her dress before walking back into the room. Five minutes of Mistress Crystal (lite) wrangling them around and the remaining four girls troop out, not a single one willing to meet your eye, even Sierra.

You'd taken the time to box up the cake and stash in in Susan's room so you're available to take Soon-Yi's arm and guide everyone back to the common room. You let Crystal explain how the portkey works as you rub the almost-hyperventilating girl's back. After a couple of minutes of your mammoth meat mountain not escaping your fly and attempting to ravage her she calms down a bit but steadfastly refuses to look directly at you. Even turning her face towards yours causes the blush on her face to deepen. She also hasn't said a single word to you since she left her dorm room.

After the portkey trip, actually getting in to the club is pretty simple. You get a look from the bouncers, but the fact that you're escorting seven women in—and your cover charge—apparently earns you a pass. Tuesdays at this club is Ladies' Night, so the girls get in free and immediately head for the dance floor. Once there they swirl around you much like they have the other times you've danced with them. Soon—who had relaxed enough while waiting to get in that she actually leaned against you—is your first dance as you grind against her without actually rubbing your cock against her too much.

Karen's next and similar to what Crystal had mentioned dances up on you and makes an abortive attempt at trailing her hand around the front of your pants before the song ends and she bolts like a skittish deer.

Savannah and Sierra take their turns together, with one sandwiching you on either side. They're also much bolder, turning you around to face the other and 'just happening' to slide their hands over your tumescent length a couple of times. Your ass gets a pinch or two as well. Returning the favor seems to be perfectly okay with both of them—Savannah especially bites her lip and looks up at you through her lashes as you caress the curve of her back and down towards the back country.

Sarah waves off dancing with you while eyeing Crystal, so you think she might be trying not to draw your girlfriend's attention quite as much. Susan, though, almost plasters herself against you and throws her arms around your neck. You cup her ass and pull her up a bit so she can speak in your ear. "Save the date tomorrow night. I want you to choke me out on your cock."

You stifle your bark of laughter in her hair. "Such a _lady_. Shall I be meeting you in the mistress' chamber?"

She giggles at you as you sway together. "You shall, _sir._"

After dancing with all of the other girls once, Crystal brings Soon-Yi back and pushes the small Korean girl against you. She doesn't _quite_ sandwich her between you but there's not much space between the two girls.

It takes another two, almost three songs before Soon relaxes against you, then starts giggling. So hard in fact that you end up holding her to you so she doesn't fall to the floor. You shoot Crystal a look but she seems clueless. The dark-haired girl shakes it off after a bit and seems to have found a well of courage, taking your hands and pushing them down just to the top curve of her petite ass.

Almost three hours of nonstop dancing later and you're effectively carrying a tired Soon-YI as you all head back to the park. You'd spent a fair amount of the last thirty minutes fending off a couple of guys—former Merchants—who weren't picking up on the fact that the girls weren't interested in dancing with them. They've even followed you out of the club, but a mild notice-me-not on you has the girls ignoring you, and a much more powerful entrancing enchantment has the guys wandering off to follow the white rabbit down an alleyway.

Back in the dorm you dispense hugs and—after some shifty looks at Crystal by the girls—get kisses on your cheeks. You hoist Soon into a princess carry and take her to her bed and end up sitting on it as she cuddles in your lap. Neither she nor Karen seems to have noticed that someone has taken the dildo and framed it with a lamp so its magnificent shadow stretches across the ceiling.

You suspect Crystal.

As you run your hand through the birthday girl's hair and hug a sleepy Karen with your other hand you ask Soon what caused the giggle fit earlier. A few tired giggles later and she explains that as part of her family lunch her uncle brought over another boy as a possible boyfriend for her. She had been talking with the guy when she asked if he knew how to bake—she had been thinking about how you were going to be bringing a cake later.

"The guy got all offended and said cooking was woman's work. My dad heard and didn't really say anything but he probably thought the same, he's still kind of old fashioned. Anyway, I said you could cook and bake and the guy said you 'probably weren't a real man'. And when I finally brushed," she blushes and looks away, "_all_ the way up against you in the club I remembered that and realized you're _all_ man." Both she and Karen break down in giggles again and you roll your eyes and chuckle along with them.

Crystal shows up and leans against the door jamb and tries to tell you without words that it's time for bed. Curling your finger under the still-giggly Soon's chin you tilt it up and give her a tender but chaste kiss before moving her off onto her bed and hoisting Karen like a sack of potatoes before depositing her in her own bed. You and your girlfriend brush against each other in the doorway as she helps the girls get their dresses off before the two of you head down the stairs and you apparate back to your apartment. In the middle of a shower to clean the sweat from you Crystal poses an interesting question.

"Do you think it'd be worth it to get the girls in on a secrecy spell that you're Warlock so you don't have to worry about using powers around them?"

You scrub her back and think about it. "Possibly, yeah, but how often do I _really_ need to use my powers around them?"

She turns around and traps your face between her breasts—and almost drowns you as she asks, "Didn't you do something to those pushy guys who tried following us?"

After blowing some bubbles you shrug. "Yeah, but they didn't notice. I'll think it over, I don't really want to lean on magic to force people to keep secrets if they don't need to know the secret in the first place."

**{3}**

A couple of minutes later in bed you kiss the back of your little spoon's neck and ask about Susan and her oral fetish. "Are you gonna be there, or are we going to be fooling around in your bed without you?"

Crystal shifts against you. "I know it's horrible, but I'm not ready for you to play with someone other than Amy without being around. I'm going to just sit and watch."

You tell her about both Sierra's flirting and Susan's 'look ma no hands' orgasm and she clarifies a bit. "Kissing and your hands—even your magic hands—aren't an issue. Oral sex or greater is over a line at the moment." She pauses and turns to look at you. "Is that bad? I mean, I'm kinda the one who asked for this…"

You blink. "Why it is bad? Didn't I say we needed to talk about it like adults? Isn't that what we're doing?"

"…yeah, good point. Well, is that okay? I mean, do you have objections?"

"Not really as long as things apply both ways for now. No forcing Susan to her knees to service her Mistress without me around. Yet. Although in the future if you ask first it _would_ be hot to get a picture of it from you."

**{4}**

Wednesday in between classes—and before your meeting at the Rig—you look into the possibility of tantric rituals. Honestly—both powerful magic and sex, it's like chocolate and peanut butter. Unfortunately your early findings point to 'sexual acts done within the confines of ritual', and yes the wording _is_ that stilted, is only useful for assisting conception, choosing the sex of the child, and similar breeding-related things.

A second book mentions sex magic being used as part of divination—specifically prophecy—but you don't trust it. Prophecy was never really a thing like that in the Potterverse, and asking Crystal to fuck herself with a wooden spindle to try and divine the future seems like a crass move.

A bit more searching and you come across a fairly slim volume that looks like was from a family library. It explains findings that sexual acts in rituals, when done a certain way, generates more magic than either of the two participants would be able to offer up normally. This person—there's no author's name anywhere and their handwriting would be practically illegible if you didn't have charms to assist—did the yeoman's work of testing and found that sex _outside_ of a formal ritual circle does tend to enhance performance _inside_ the ritual as well, so long as the sex happens within about three hours of the ritual.

And then on one of the last pages, a scribbled note that you have to enlarge the entire book to read states 'as is known, sex acts in ritual cannot be used during a ritual which harms but will enhance all things _healdsum_. See the writings of Cynewise of Mercia, whose writings on this can be considered definitive'.

..the problem is that you can't _find_ the writings of Cynewise. It's not in your current library, and attempted summonings from your trunk of many things makes you _think_ something might be in the pile trying to get out, but you can't actually know for sure. Aelfie offers to do the work on it, and the room you had set aside as a library quickly grows shelves upon shelves as she uncovers more.

Your sexy research is broken up by _yet more_ sex-related stuff as Crystal and Susan have group messaged you on and off during the morning. Apparently your little sex pet's womb has taken over and she started the day thirsty by sending the two of you a topless picture and continues during the rest of your research period as Crystal eggs your threesome partner on into revealing that she's willing to have her hands tied and have pictures taken so she can see herself in action. She's also adamant about you facefucking her until she blacks out, and has said that 'butt stuff' isn't completely out of the question.

Mid-afternoon you head over to the north ferry terminal and meet up with Templeton, who was heading back to the Rig to go to her official office. She does take the time out of her busy schedule to guide you to the room where the meeting is. Being a non-Protectorate cape in their base, you're wearing a garishly-green 'Visitor' tag with your masked face on it which looks hilarious against your otherwise monochrome attire, and you have a couple of mirror-visored escorts shadowing you.

All three women are sitting and talking in what looks more like a fancy loft apartment than a converted oil rig. All three turn to look at you and your escorts as you walk up, but a groan from Janice warns you as a fat guy in a garish Hawaiian shirt, sandals with _blue_ socks and a floppy attempt at a mohawk sweeps in from the side.

"Warlock, we _have_ to talk about your sartorial choices!" He makes to grab you but you burst into smoke and reform on the other side of him in your druid robes.

"Sure mate. I'll just clean you up a bit and put you in a basic navy suit and fix that hair and we can talk."

Glenn Chambers, PRT head of Image, staggers like you've shot him. "Don't you dare!" He runs one hand over his shaggy flophawk and starts to say something else before his eyes go wide at your animated robes. "They _do_ move! Beautiful! Can we discuss…"

Throwing your robes over his head and tying the arms together to muffle him you conjure yourself a doctor's white lab coat and sit down on one of the free chairs. "Ladies, I'm Warlock. The PRT has hired me to do cosmetic alterations for you today. I hope they passed on the suggestion to eat heartily so I have body mass to work with?"

Three nods go around and Squealer, Sherrel, is the first to speak. When she's not screaming her voice is… well, it's still horrible, but you no longer feel like rupturing your own eardrums to escape it. "Nothin' doin', but how d'we know you know your stuff?"

"Did any of you happen to catch Sandralina Tolli's speech last week?"

Purity—well, Kayden—is the first to catch on. "She looked _angelic_. That was your work?"

You incline your head. "My first famous client. She was a freebie to attract attention." And it's worked, Quinn contacted you to mention that a couple of actors and actresses had left discreet inquiries into getting some work done. "I can do quite a bit, but if the three of you are willing I would prefer that you bounce at least some of your ideas off the others or otherwise get alternate opinions, as a single person going off of ideas in their own head will find that things translate oddly to reality."

Erica coughs and wiggles her fingers. "Before we start changing hair colors and stuff, is there anything…" she trails off and gestures at her eyepatch.

Pulling out your wand you roll it around. "Do I have your permission to heal you?" At her choked 'Yes', you flick it in a diagnostic. There's no eye left, of course, but you can get some information from the optic nerve. Whatever led to the loss of the eye, she was obviously seen by a doctor afterwards, as the nerve itself isn't torn or otherwise horrifically damaged.

Regrowing an entire eye actually takes quite a while by your estimation—almost five minutes—in order to make sure everything is right. Unfortunately Glenn wanders over wearing your robes after a minute or two, but after being told very sternly that you're healing he drops the over-the-top persona and calms down some.

You'd used nerve-blocking charms and various pain-relief spells to ensure that Erica didn't have to deal with the unusual feeling of the regrowth, so when you finally reattach the nerves and tell her to take off the patch her fingers immediately probe towards her new eye. "Don't poke it out, I just put it back!"

She whips her hand away and squints. "Fuck, ow, it's bright!"

Leaning back a bit you shrug, "Cover your eye and let a little bit of light leak in at a time." You turn to Sherrel, who has her hand up and is waving it a bit uncertainly. "Yes?"

"Are you gonna be able to do anything t'fix the girls?" She moves her elbows in and bobbles her barely-contained bolt-on breasts between them.

"'The girls' will get switched over to being all-natural and you'll be able to choose the size. To a point. I'm not leaving you with breasts big enough to cause you serious back issues later on down the line."

Squealer sits back and smiles, but then has it fall off her face. "And the voice thing?"

"I'm not changing the way you talk or the words you use, but manipulation of the vocal chords can make your voice sound different, yes."

Sherrel gestures to Kayden, as Erica is still slowly getting used to the new eye. The mousy brunette Blaster turns to face you and fiddles with the hem of her shirt. "I'd like to shift things around a bit and get… more proportional."

A brush of her mind tells you that she's not ready to be anything but white, but Max had a thing for blondes with big tits, blue eyes, and flawless skin. _She_ wants to be a red headed, green-eyed, freckled sexpot with nice tits and a killer ass. Of course she doesn't see it that way and wouldn't make it easy by explaining it like that, but that's what she's actually looking for.

Since you know where she wants to go with it, working in that direction actually doesn't end up being too bad. All three women are in loose clothes with what is described as 'Changer-class' underwear so the resizing of various parts isn't an issue. Skin is toned and the short woman gains an inch or two, still leaving her about an inch shorter than average. Her hair is a fiery copper that will fall in loose ringlets, and while she finally decided on keeping the same breast size they're now perfectly perky, topped with ghostly pink nipples. Work on the shape of her eyes, nose—even her ears—has her looking nothing like her previous appearance. Her skin is a light cream that will probably lobster in the sun but she absolutely insists it must be that light. Her ass and thighs, however, are a thing of beauty, with her prancing in her underwear on tiptoes to emphasize it in a series of mirrors that Glenn has wheeled in.

She's staring at the latest set of freckles in the mirror to see if they're acceptable when Janice (who had left but made it back part way through the process) pulls you aside. "Did I hear Kayden right that you made it so she doesn't have any hair below her neck?"

"Not exactly," you murmur fairly quietly. "No armpit hair, no leg hair, pubic hair only above the pubis so she can style it how she wants later. All the little incidental hairs people have on the rest of the body, arm hair, that kind of thing are still there, just softer, and lighter-colored."

"How much?"

"If you let me put a pair of ass antlers on you that says 'services performed by Warlock' it's free."

The director laughs. "Go to hell."

You make a triangle with your fingers. "If I can style your pubes into my symbol and you get a couple of shots taken for my portfolio I'll cut you a deal."

"Oh fuck off."

"Just mention it to me when you have a spare moment or two. If you have any stubble or hair it makes it fall out, so you'll want to take a bathroom break and shake it all out."

Kayden—all of the women will get new names after this, so they don't object to using their current ones—seems fairly content at this point, so you move on. Erica has is wandering around and getting used to depth perception once again so Sherrell steps up and announces her intentions to go latina. Even better, she did research and has pictures of the basic proportions and skin tone she's looking for.

After some transfiguration to get her implants to be natural and demands to make them as big as you'll allow, you work on her hips and change her hair to black. Her voice is lowered some and with some experimentation gains a slight husk without sounding like she's a three-pack-a-day smoker.

Honestly she looks incredible and she knows it, strutting around and posing in front of you and Glenn and calling you 'papi'. And then everything goes to hell when you ask a simple question.

"So, are you going to be able to Tinker with those breasts in the way?"

Newly-honey colored eyes go wide as she turns to Janice. "Temps, I gotta go down and try to Tink!" She heads to the door in little but the stretched-to-the-limits underwear that don't contain her jiggling in the slightest and a pair of slippers you conjure on her feet. Janice manages to shout out the door to let her go as she gets on her radio and verifies that Armsmaster is nowhere near the garage that's been set aside for vehicle Tinkering.

That leaves Erica. She has gotten more used to having both eyes and was talking with Kayden while you were transforming Sherrell. "I was told there's some kind of guy involved? I still don't think that should change things, if anything you should drastically alter your looks for safety's sake."

She swallows and nods solemnly. "Yes, and I will. More specifically though, how close can you get my hair to look to gold?"

…that prompts a look in her head and really, you should have figured this out. She wants to be with 'Thor'. Thor's wife is Sif, renowned for her flaxen hair, and then after Loki shaves it it gets replaced by spun gold.

You _could_ give her actual gold for hair, but even ignoring that it'd be heavy, she also would be really obvious without adding in Changer abilities. The two of you work back and forth and settle on a wheat blonde shot through with streaks that look like actual yellow gold.

And then she wants it long enough to trail to her knees.

In line with her desire for Thunor, she requests a sculpted, pretty muscled body. Rather than go with pale skin she settles on more of a southern european vaguely-tan complexion to keep from being too much like a Nazi poster child. She was already tall for a woman but since Thunor is something like 6'3" she has you stretch her out to 6'1", with broad shoulders and ice-blue eyes.

"I know this should have been covered in some of the documentation you had to sign, but you're aware that now that I've given you a warrior's body that it's up to you to keep it that way?"

Erica does some squats and flexes all of her muscles. "My boyf—_the guy_ that you were so worried about loves to go to the gym. I just never put in the same effort he did. Now I will."

Glenn, who had wandered off every time you were adjusting busts and butts comes back and starts a conversation with both women while you and Templeton head off in search of the runaway nu-latina.

You find her exactly where she said she'd be. She's covered from fingers to elbows in grease for some strange reason, with dark streaks of it on her stretchy bra and smooth stomach. She doesn't seem to be having _too_ much of an issue with enhanced bustline, although they're about three cup sizes larger in total with a proportional increase in band size. She's jiggling around and talking out loud without a care as she wrenches something down.

No, the problem is that she has company. Specifically, Kid Win and his hoverboard are sharing a table with Sherrel's tits and the high schooler is staring so hard you think you can see his eyeballs plastered against his visor. His head also seems locked on one fat dark nipple that has almost escaped its shrink-wrapped cage and is bobbing in time and he's drooling just a bit.

Putting a hand on Templeton's shoulder as she draws a breath in to yell you push her back a bit and stride closer, making sure your footfalls are loud. Kid Win snaps out of his teenager fugue without serious intervention luckily and he wipes his chin before turning and flinching back from you. "Warlock?! What're…"

Waving to the Ward you pass your other hand in Sherell's line of vision and manage to break her concentration. "Hey, how's the new suit?"

It takes a moment and a lot of blinking before Squealer pulls herself together enough to realize what you're talking about, but she gets there. "Oh, I gotta bit more of a problem squeezin' into a tight engine bay n' shi—stuff," she looks over at her younger audience and absently pops her tit back into its confinement, "but hell, I'll just build my own stuff bigger." She shrugs, causing a soft groan from the boy next to you. "When I'm workin' on contract stuff for the PRT if space is tight I'll just call papito over here." She looks at the teenager and you can see she knows exactly what she's done to him. Reaching out she leaves a greasy trail down his chin and neck. "Won't you, Win?"

"_Squealer_, it's time to go back and finish getting your _cosmetic alterations_ done," Templeton announces loudly.

"Tch, old lady killin' my groove here," Sherrell complains, grabbing some shop towels and bouncing away.

You're actually left alone with the dumbfounded Kid Win who turns to you with a pleading look on his face.

Unfortunately you're going to send his dreams crashing and burning. "Yeah, that's Squealer. She's getting a makeover."

"That's…. _dude._"

You nod a bit. "Yeah, all her choice too. I'm as surprised as you are. But hey, maybe you'll get called in to help pull that ass out of a tight compartment, huh?" You trail out and leave a critical mass of frustrated hormones in your wake as you head back up to Image.

Apparently any berating that was done was done in the elevator, because there's no yelling going on or anything. You pick up from where you left off, changing the lines of her face a bit more until she's satisfied.

All three women look like sex on two legs after your changes, and the poking and prodding they're doing on each other doesn't exactly make them any less alluring as they shift and jiggle. To be fair Erica also looks like she could snap you like a twig but she's no less attractive for it.

And as you make to leave it is the wannabe-valkyrie who stops you. "I think it was mentioned, but Sherrell and I wanted to see if we could join forces…"

"Yes, it was brought up. I don't know how much was passed on, but I have a small team that just started, and we all get a say in administrative decisions. We haven't sat down and hashed anything out yet, but I will guess—and it's _only _a guess—that even if we don't invite you to be part of the team directly that we can ally with you." You hand her two cards with your email address and cape phone on them. "I honestly figured that we had more time before the decision needed to be made, so we hadn't been in any particular hurry."

Sherrell wanders up and leans against the muscular blonde. "Nah, there ain't a hurry. We still gotta lot of paperwork to go through before it's a thing, but havin' an idea if we're gonna have backup when we start out is important."

You summon your wayward robes from Glenn and stuff them into a duster pocket that obviously shouldn't fit them. "I don't see a huge issue, but even if the answer turns out to be 'no' for a formal alliance I'm perfectly willing to render some assistance to keep you from being affected by the gangs until you find your feet."

Squealer has apparently decided she's a hugger, so you get to feel the quality your work firsthand and you can't help but be impressed. Janice seems to be impressed as well, and perhaps a bit envious. In the elevator on the way back out you lean over to her. "Seriously, just call and make an appointment. I'll let the management know not to quote you a price or anything and I can do some touch-ups on you. It's just better to keep it looking professional so that no one thinks I'm bribing you with perkier tits or an ass you could bounce a quarter off of."

The director is tempted. Hell, she's more than tempted, she's planning on having you tighten and tone everything to take her already very in-shape body to the sexbomb next level next month if things settle acceptably.

Back in your lair Aelfie has uncovered a metric shitload of additional books, but searches for 'Cynewise' still leaves you empty handed.

Amy shows up and wiggles in your lap and the two of you kiss and chat for a while before you ask her out on a date on Saturday evening. The healer actually balks at first, as she was planning on getting her a piece of you on Friday, but you point out that you're both likely to be tired from the New Wave ladies' ritual. That sets her off muttering, 'cockblockers' being the nicest thing she calls them.

Taylor wanders in to say hello and you are filling both girls in on the Squealer/Othala situation when Crystal flies in looking guilty. "Uh… I might've screwed up the ritual stuff with my mom, James."

That gets immediate attention from you. "But how? I gave you the chants written out phonetically, the rune layouts, even the recordings you made of the chants so they could get the rhythm."

Waving a hand to dismiss that she shakes her head. "No, all of the like _important_ ritual stuff is fine. I had told my mom that 'because of the gender discrepancy, James will need to go naked in the ritual space as that 'makes the masculine energies more potent' as a joke." Her air quotes are a little wild, and her eyes are wide.

Hearing a soft _snrk_ from the other side of the table you look over to see Taylor with a hand over her mouth stifling her snickers.

"_Noooooooot funny!_" Crystal whines.

Amy apparently catches on and bursts out into gales of laughter.

You think about it a moment and sigh. "She just accepted it, didn't she?"

The slump of her shoulders tells you everything.

Taylor gives up on holding it in and laughs as well. She and Amy keep meeting each other's eyes and bursting out into renewed laughing jags. You let the two amuse themselves and look over at the blonder of your girlfriends. "Please explain to them that I will be using powers to remain flaccid so they don't think I'm going to be moving around with my boner—" an excellent word choice by you makes Amy snort in laughter and Taylor smack the table to try and contain her humor, "bouncing all over the place. If it helps, you can tell her that the two of you won't need to be naked for the guys' ritual because the numbers are slightly more even."

Somewhat recovered but still gasping for breath, the bug controller offers, "I was going to say I'd be willing to act as a battery as long as I could pull up a hood and turn away the whole time, but I don't know how well that'd work with James being naked."

"That'd actually be great, really, but the robes are actually hoodless. They're just cut weird."

Amy waves her hand to stop the discussion as she takes a couple of deep breaths and covers her eyes to prevent getting set off again. "I could totally change your face before and then put it back afterwards. That wouldn't count as having a spell active during the ritual, right?"

You blink. "No, it wouldn't. That'd be perfect, we can still call Taylor 'Weaver' and if it comes up you can honestly say you're disguised. If the nudity thing is too much, though, then we can save that for the guys' ritual and you can just turn away like the girls will."

Taylor has a bit of a flush on her face. "I don't know… can I decide by tomorrow?"

"Sure."

Amy gives you a quick kiss and tows Taylor off to check on whatever evil they're cooking up in the hives they've made leaving you with a mopy Crystal.

Gathering your Lady into your arms you kiss the top of her head. "So what's the major issue, sweetheart?"

There's a gusty sigh and a single word. "Vicky."

You rummage in her head a bit to sort that one out. When you do, _you_ give a gusty sigh. "Crys, if Vicky hasn't driven me off by now this isn't going to do it. I'm sure as hell not going to leave _you_ for _her._"

Crystal cuddles in to your chest for a bit before nodding. "You're right, I just… I'm suspicious of how many boyfriends left around the time they met her."

"I'm like a rash, m'dear, you can't get rid of me that easily." That gets a weak nudge as you hold her for a bit and you fill her in on what you've been researching. The idea that sex might make rituals more powerful seems to agree with her too.

"If it does make things more powerful, then we should all have an orgy and do the totem ritual again!"

You smirk at her. "All of us. Soon to be including your entire family unit…."

**{5}**

Her defeated whine is hilarious.

Crystal heads back to her dorm to have dinner with the Klub and get some girl talk going on, so you take Amy out to dinner as yourself. She manages to rope you into going to Fugly Bob's because she's starving and you find that the burgers are actually fucking delicious, if greasy enough to drown a whale.

Obviously the two of you can't talk about cape stuff, so instead you give her a replay of Soon-Yi's party, including some quiet discussion of the girls' reactions to your flirting. You think she's unduly smug about their reactions for someone who was desperately moaning your name into her pillow while wearing a hoodie of yours less than a month ago, but the public venue keeps you from voicing that out loud.

You 'walk her home', mainly by finding a quiet spot to apparate the two of you back to the Pelham's. Instead of heading back to either your apartment or the the lair immediately, however, you change your face and head to a sex shop to pick up some toys. Yes, you could just conjure them, but having them be real and traceable to existing designs is helpful.

Instead of sitting in your apartment or back at the lair you spend the time before Susan's booty call comes in on campus. You start out sitting with Thunor in an on-campus coffee shop this time and generally shooting the shit before a mountain of a woman comes in, brushing the rain from the braided crown her hair is in. You're a little surprised that Templeton let Erica—or whatever she's going to call herself—out so soon, but you fall quiet as the strapping woman makes a beeline for the man she pines for and crowds into his personal space.

"Excuse me gentlemen," she starts, with faint traces of an accent you _know_ she didn't have earlier in the day. She turns to Thunor and bites her lip before continuing. "My name is Helga, and I just moved to Brockton Bay and transferred to the college. I was told you're the person to go to to speak about the _Edda_s? You are Thunraz?"

That must be a code phrase, because Thunor looks like someone just bitchslapped him while telling him he won the lottery. You lean over and slap the older guy on the back and shove him out of his seat a bit. "Why don't you and Helga go talk about your favorite bits of poetry?"

The valkyrie breaks out into a wide smile and yanks Thunor up by the arm, giving you a nod. "He has an excellent idea. Why don't I show you my room?"

They wander off, not to a room but to a PRT van hiding a few blocks away, and you take the time to get a bit of pleasure-reading in—Amy's posted a couple more chapters of _Cascadia High_. She had taken (with your permission) and built off of the chapter you wrote. Her SI is getting absolutely ruined on her teacher's desk when the two of them are found out by the librarian. The librarian—who is a Crystal expy—is obviously in on things as she quickly takes a place on the desk in front of Gothacea and grinds the teen girl's face into her pantyhose-clad pussy before ripping a hole in it to force the younger girl to pleasure her, all while her teacher is 'reshaping her cunt to fit only him'.

The next chapter includes lesbian ass worship and double penetration with a strap-on that's pretty hot and you wouldn't mind seeing enacted in real life, so you copy a particularly hot sentence and send it to Crystal with a link.

The text that lets you know the time has come arrives from Susan's phone. You can recognize Crystal's dorm room, and Susan is topless, glasses-less, and looking demurely down. She's added a caption stating 'I await you, sir.' You fire off a couple of texts to verify safe words and tap patterns (can't talk with a throatfull of cock after all) as you walk.

When you let yourself into Crystal's room a few minutes later Susan is kneeling right in front of the door in dark panties and long socks with her hands in her lap. Looking up at you for a second she flicks her eyes back down like she's been caught being disobedient and manages a credible blush on command. You worm your way into her mind and find she's doing her best to work herself into being your 'slave' to deepen the fantasy for her and to try and cum hands-free.

You decide to help, stopping in front of her and running your hand through her hair. Tossing your bag onto Crystal's bed you walk past your little slave and wait for a moment. "Well pet? We can't put your throat to use if you don't undress me."

As Susan scurries to take your shirt off you look over to where Crystal is lounging in a chair and smirking at you. She's waiting on the first time your balls smack against Susan's chin to start seriously masturbating, but she's lazily playing with herself, rubbing over top of her yoga pants and enjoying you playing master and slave with someone who isn't her or Amy. And after you dominate poor Susie and she's recovering on the bed Cystal's planning on riding you right in front of her and getting a massively magical cream pie. With how much she liked being restrained and teased back when you were writing that smut chapter for Amy, though, you have something better in mind you'll spring on her later.

Once you're stripped down to your boxer-briefs you pick Susan up in your arms and put her down on the bed, pulling out some soft silk rope. "Since you're supposed to be serving me with only your mouth tonight I decided to take away distractions like your hands and arms." You don't overdo things, merely binding her wrists in a two-column tie and then rolling her onto her side. You rummage through the bag again and drop something right in front of her face that makes her freeze.

Tapping the princess plug with a green gem on the end you stroke her back and play with the elastic of her panties. "That's also to help you, if you want it. Just think, every time your ass touches your heels as I thrust into your mouth you'll feel it and jerk forward to take more of my cock." When she glances up to you, you smile down at her. "And it shows that every one of your holes belongs to me."

In her head she wants to do it, she's just afraid of possible pain. Your strong, warm hands caressing down her spine and cupping her ass convince her. "Please be gentle, sir," she whispers, leaning forward enough to kiss the plug.

Flicking the top off of some lube so she's aware you're about to slick her up, you pull the back of her panties down but use your own conjured lube instead, as well as casting the same spells that Amy has on her plug on the totally mundane one you picked up for Susan. They won't last for very long, but they'll be fine for tonight.

You don't _hurry_ through preparing her little rosebud, but with the spells in place it's not very long at all before you're easing the bulb of the plug through her backdoor and settling the gem between her cheeks. A gentle pat of her ass and you slide her panties back up. "Take a moment to get used to it, slave."

Spinning off the bed you catch Crystal wet-handed and hoist her up and over onto the mattress before she has a chance to react. She's so startled, in fact, that you're able to snatch the second length of rope—and since it's out of sight of Susan use a little magic to assist—and bind her hands behind her as well. Just as she starts to struggle you roll her onto her stomach and swat her ass once sharply. "And you thought you were just going to play with yourself the whole time? If I'm not sinking my cock into your cunts tonight no-one's playing with theirs either."

You roll her the other way so that her ass is facing a staring Susan and peel the tight yoga pants down to her knees. She's already wearing a copy of Amy's plug and you change the symbol to an emerald like Susan's before you spread her ass and show your slave what her mistress already has.

Once more digging in your bag you come up with a 'J' shaped vibrator that is remote controlled. Crystal's already soaked enough that she's left a sticky patch on her leggings, so you merely get Susan to slick it up a bit in her mouth before sliding the larger side into your girlfriend's pussy and nestling the shorter part over and against her clit.

Sliding the stretchy material back up enough to give her a bit of a wedgie to hold the items in place you put her back on the chair and tie her to it for good measure before patting her cheek with a smirk as she glowers at you. You wipe the frown off with a blast of full power vibration in both front and back before turning them down to almost off.

Susan is still laying on the bed, her eyes wide as you easily pick her up and pull out the final thing you had placed in your bag—a thick, fluffy cushion for her knees. Putting it on the ground you set her down on it and stand in front of her, cupping her chin and turning her face to yours. "I care for all of my toys, my dear. Now it's time for you to care for me." You move your hips forward a bit. "I know you enjoy feeling my cock swell in your mouth. If you get my underwear off fast enough you can, otherwise you lose out."

It becomes immediately apparent why Susan wasn't wearing her glasses as she mashes her face into your stomach and catches the elastic of your briefs in her teeth before pulling them down and taking your flaccid dick right across the eyes. Moving back up, she stops just long enough to press kisses to your sack before closing her mouth around your soft cock and swallowing it all the way to the root.

Releasing the mental magic that had locked away your feelings of pleasure you feel your shaft grow in Susan's throat as she closes her eyes and hums contentedly. The petite brunette manages to keep her lips fastened around the base of your cock until you rest, throbbing and fully hard in her throat. You run your fingers through her hair and see the edges of her lips curl in a smile as she slowly pulls back and reveals your glistening, spit-slick meat with the air of a professional sword-swallower.

…until she sits back far enough to disturb the plug in her ass.

Jerking forward with a choked sound of surprise she gags a bit and her eyes fly open to lock on your wry smirk. She very carefully slides you out of her throat and takes a deep breath through her nose before getting serious and starting to impale herself on your cock, using the jolt of the buttplug as a prod to move faster and faster. What started out as soft noises as she deepthroated you has turned into a loud, wet _glhk_ with every stroke.

Since you're devoting all of your cum to Susan tonight you don't see any reason to hold back as the bound brunette does her best to take your cock all the way to her stomach. You look over to your girlfriend and turn her vibrators up a bit and watch as she does her best to grind against them to the tempo Susan has set.

Your kneeling slave starts to lose herself in the act, concentrating solely on laving your shaft with her tongue and lips and swallowing repeatedly as she falls deeper into an almost meditative rhythm. Almost ten minutes of mindblowing service comes to an end with you placing your hand on her head and warning her you're getting close. Susan registers that faintly and she hums around your shaft and manages to move even faster. With a grunt you fist your hand in Susan's curly hair and cum, feeling her throat massaging your cock with every swallow. Using a spell to monitor her you hold her down until she's light-headed and floaty with just the edges of panic setting in before you pull her off and allow her to gulp deep breaths as you turn your grip on her hair into running your fingers through it. She leans against your leg and blinks at her watering eyes.

"Still want more, pet?"

Susan nods and manages a raspy 'Yes', then yelps as you pick her up in a princess carry and place her face-up with her head hanging off the side of Crystal's bed. You let your cock rub along the girl's face as you adjust her to make sure her arms won't hurt as she lays on them and the hot breaths and fevered kisses she presses against you only make you throb harder.

Placing a hand on her neck you apply a bit of pressure—not enough to do anything, but enough to simulate light choking. "Do you still want to be choked out on my cock, slave?"

"Please, sir."

You groan a bit at how she opens her mouth so obligingly whenever your cockhead is anywhere near. "If you want to be the best pet, you'd cum just from worshipping my cock. Will you?"

The soft moan and buck of her hips tells you she's on board. "Yes sir. Please, _use_ me."

The next time the fat head of your dick aligns with her mouth you cast a sensory link spell between Susie's throat and Crystal's pussy before hilting yourself in the oral-fixated coed. While Crystal moans in the background Susan feels your hanging balls in her face and leans in harder, filing her nose with your scent.

You stay there for fifteen long seconds before pulling back, almost fully out and sheathing yourself again and again. It's not soft or gentle—you fuck her throat like it's a pussy, only occasionally giving her a breath of air. You're monitoring her closely and she's floating again, feeling the shifting of the plug and the plundering of her throat as pure pleasure. She's discarded thought and is running almost solely on feelings now.

Slamming home hard enough that your sack smacks into her nose you pause again and flex your cock against the tight confines while reaching out and palming her breasts. "Show me how obedient you are, pet. Focus on my cock, and only my cock. You're going to cum because you are serving me." You resume thrusting just as hard, giving her even less time to breathe as you feel her arousal ramping higher and higher.

You hold back until her mind is whited out in pleasure with faint gray around the edges as she starts to lose consciousness. Placing your hand on her neck and squeezing softly to emphasize the bulge in her throat from your cock you erupt directly down her gullet and moan, "Good pet, cum for me."

That—finally—tips her over the edge and her hips buck as she cums. Despite whiting out she manages to push a few millimeters deeper on your cock even as she fades. You pull out and wipe her face free, pulling her into your lap and verify she's fine. You had dialed up Crystal's vibes as you throatfucked Susan and the blonde has her head laying back and is doing some heavy breathing of her own.

As you pet her hair and offer her water Susan's breathing returns to normal and she pushes herself down to once again try and get her lips around your cock. You have to admire her single-mindedness, if you weren't in her head you'd almost wonder if she broke something important. Instead in her muzzy-headed logic, she's decided that since she can cum from sucking cock and almost passing out that doing it while she's barely caught her breath would be an _excellent_ idea.

Plucking the girl up from where she was trying to wriggle down you untie her arms and carry her over to the chair Crystal is tied in and sit her on the floor in front of it. Crystal tilts her head quizzically as you pull her hips forward and Susan's head back so that they meet.

Draping your cock over your pet's face so that she can run her tongue over your sack you explain what's going on to both ladies. "Your mistress thought she was going to get her pussy stuffed while yours was unavailable and looked pretty smug about it. So instead she's going to see me thrusting but it's going down your throat instead of up her cunt. I want _you_ to play with yourself as much as you want this time, while _she_ can only cum if you grind your head back into her crotch enough."

Crystal gapes at you and in her mind calls you an asshole—a totally hot, teasing asshole and she's totally stealing this to do to Amy, but an asshole nonetheless. Susan pauses and slides to the side and blinks wide eyes up at you. "Sir, please cum all over my face?" she asks.

You smile down indulgently, "Of course, pet." Swiveling your hips you trail your cock down over her nose and watch as her mouth parts perfectly to fit you inside, where her tongue works double-time to taste every possible inch.

Playing with the remote for Crystal's vibrator you find an intermittent setting, three short pulses and one long. You thrust in time down Susan's throat, backing out enough between strokes so she can breathe until you're jackhammering the girl's mouth.

Flicking the vibe to a steady buzz you stay still in Susan's throat and she brings a hand up to caress your balls and catch the spit dripping from your shaft. In her mind you see that she takes her wet hand and uses it to masturbate before pulling off your cock and rubbing her head back against Crystal and drawing a moan from the still bound girl.

The two of you establish a rhythm as you fuck Susan's mouth and lean over to kiss your girlfriend. The first time you kiss she groans into your mouth as the still-existent sensory link tells her you're fucking her pussy as your tongue battles with hers.

You're not willing to try and time orgasms between three different people so you cheat and use your magic touch, ramping the power up slowly until both Susie and Crys are locked in orgasm together as your sensory link makes them feel like both are taking your cock.

Finally though, your pet's exemplary oral efforts tip you over the edge and you have to pull away from Crystal's lips for a moment to warn Susan. Right before you cum you pull back from her grasping throat and loose your first blast in her mouth, then straighten up from your lip-lock and stroke yourself over Susan's face and Crystal's thighs. The hand that isn't furiously fingering herself comes up and caresses your balls, urging you to empty everything you have onto her. Even though it's your third load of the night you cover the girl's face in a thick sheen of white and both girls shudder through more climaxes as your magically-charged semen affects them.

Once again picking Susan up you place her in Crystal's lap and the two girls swap cum as you untie your girlfriend. After some towels and moving over to the bed the two of you cuddle the shorter oral fetishist between you as you surreptitiously make sure that there's no serious damage to her body from the breath play.

Lying on her back between you, Susan draws Crystal down into a kiss and whispers to her before turning to you and wrapping an arm around your chest. "Thanks for doing what I said with the choking me out and everything while trying to keep it as safe as possible, James."

Kissing the top of her head you hug her to you. "It freaked me out a bit, honestly."

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to do that again for quite a while. I trust you and all, but I got really weird at a couple of points. I just wanted to slam my face down on you and like gag until I blacked out."

You had seen that, and that was one of the reasons why the third time was the last. "I'm sure Crys would be happy to lend me out to stunt cock for you, but only for regular oral, not breath play any more."

Spooning up behind her, Crystal slides her hands between you and Susan and cups the latter's breasts. "Exactly. You can suck on him like a pacifier twenty four/seven, but let's not mess with choking to death on cock, okay?"

Huffing dramatically, Susan kisses you before turning her head to kiss Crystal. "F_iiiiiiiiine_. And for all that you seem to think I'm all oral all the time, we need to do this again so you can get inside me the other way, too."

A smirk spreads across your face and Crystal giggles softly. "Susie, I'm not freaked out by a bit of blood. I don't give a shit about your period, if you had asked I would have fucked you into the mattress. You cockblocked yourself."

You're not sure if the headbutt into your chest was supposed to hurt you, but the only groan is from the curly-haired girl in your arms. "Good night, _sir."_


End file.
